Eugene Rodney Hutchinson

This morning at about 1am, Rodney lost his battle with cancer. For those of you who did not know this man, let me just say, you missed out! Rodney was my Godfather along with a friend, uncle, and definitely a role model. Rodney served many years as a Kentucky State Policeman before retiring with his wife LouAnn. In January he was diagnosed with melanoma in his chest after just moving to a new home north of Lexington, KY. The doctors performed surgery and weren’t able to remove all of the cancer at the time, so off to Chemotherapy and Radiation. The end of May they got results that showed the cancer had moved to his lungs and so they put him on oxygen to help him breath. I traveled down to see him in June when I was in Cleveland on business and he had just got back to the house after a battle with the dentist and he was in a lot of pain. He told me that day, “it’s not the cancer that hurts, it’s everything else that is going wrong.” The end of June, his PET scan results showed that the cancer in his lungs hadn’t progressed, and had possibly even shrunk. Off to Iowa they came for my Mom and Dad’s anniversary party with a fairly good prognosis. The end of July came around and back to the doctor for monthly scans and this time it showed that it had advanced. It was now on his pelvis, spine, shoulder, liver, and in his abdominal cavity. After that, there was basically nothing anyone could do except to keep him comfortable. Day by day, his body started to shut down. This morning as Rodney went on to a much better place, all of his kids were there with him, and once the funeral home got there, Rodney got a police escort back to Martin, KY which will be his final resting place. Rodney, may you rest in peace. You will be missed by many and thank you for being the best Godfather one could ask for!! We love you.