My Uncle Brendon

Well my uncle died last Saturday. Third funeral I have been to this year. I wish I would have know him more on an adult level. I hung out with him as a kid a lot but as an adult not so much. His friends said lots of very nice things about him at his vigil. They even made stickers that said "What Would Marty Do?" Funny how the family and old friends knew him as Brendon and everyone else called him Marty. Marty was his first name Brendon His second. He spent his life helping a lot of people in Tacoma Washington. He feed the homeless, Work for an organization within the Catholic church that housed them. Worked for the Health department in the needle exchange program to prevent the spread of AIDS in the IV drug using population. He also distributed free condoms at the same time. Hard to see him go. He spent the last year in a home for people with demensia. They thought he was a loony asshole. D

Point Defiance AIDS project put this in their newsletter about him:

SADNEWS: We are sad to report the death of Marty Ralph, long - time staff person at the Needle Exchange. Marty was one of the first to join Dave Purchase in the distribution and exchange of clean needles to heroin addicts in Tacoma in the late 1980’s. In the next decade, Marty personally interacted with and educated thousands of persons who injected drugs in Tacoma, handing out well over a million clean syringes – and saving countless lives. Martyhad a passion about his work saving lives and protecting people from HIV that will be missed. Our thoughts are with the PDAP family as they cope with this loss