I hear ya Seabear and agree wholeheartedly.  Those close to home (immediate family) experiences have a significant impact for me to Fold as well. 

Same.  It's not easy when a distant relative goes, but when one close to home goes, it's 60 times worse.

November 4
 
By DeepPurple23
 
This was more emotional and harder to write than I thought it would be, but I LOVED it, thanks Warthorn, even if no one reads it I needed to write it, I hope you enjoy.
 
Why do we fold…or in this case why do I fold.  To properly answer that one I have to give you a little background.  I was born in Philadelphia, when I was three my parents split and we moved back to my Mom’s home town, a tiny little speck in the Midwest (loved growing up there BTW).  Of course, when we got there my Mom had to go to work so as a result I spent my days with my Grandparents.  To give some perspective, there are 10 kids in my Mom’s family and 115 Grandchildren, I am the third from the youngest, huge family and I barely made the list, kinda surprised anyone even knew my name.
 
In any event, growing up my only father figure was my Grandfather and it turns out I couldn’t have had a better father figure in all the world, he was an honest, fair, strong, and caring man who would have given anything for the happiness and well being of his family.  He taught me right from wrong and kept me on the correct path no matter what.  He never thought twice about going out of his way to let me know that I was loved and that not only did he care but he was watching.  When I was freshmen in college I learned that my Grandfather had developed cancer, he was 86.  Since he never complained about anything and was so strong/stubborn by the time he went to the doctor it was ravishing his body and there was only one treatment option, morphine and time.  I finished up the last of my finals and went home to see him, of course this powerful man that I knew my whole life was now bedridden and barely aware of anything that was going on around him even though there were about 15 people in the house.  Through the haze he made a point of grabbing my arm to talk to me one last time and to give my some advice and life well wishing, even in the end it was more about the ones he loved then it was about him.  That was over 20 years ago and it still makes me cry to think about it, transported back to when I’m a boy standing in his room as he passes.  One of the proudest moments of my life was when it was relayed to me that he had asked that I be one of his pallbearers.
 
After that I never really paid too much attention to cancer or cancer research, I know it sounds horrible, but it was simply too painful.  Then I saw the promotion from EVGA about the race to #1, started reading about the project.  Realizing that I work at home, from a work laptop, but that an i7 860 sat on and idle most the day (my gaming rig for when the urge strikes).  I decided that maybe it was time that I did something to help some future version of me from having losing a loved one before it was time.  That was three months ago and now I have the 860 as a dedicated 24/7 folding rig and I’ve built a new 875K for my main rig, although that folds pretty close to 24/7 as well.  Resources limit the number of computers but not the desire to do more, regardless of 2684 or 6701 in needs to get folded.
 
Of course, as tank said it’s really all about the chicks.  I did get laid when I explained to my wife what I was doing, why I was doing it and why the electric bill was so high and it was going to stay that way.   So I must be doing the right thing. 
 
Fold On
 

Thanks for sharing Deep, brought a tear to my eye (for real).
 
Thanks for everyone that has posted so far.

That was deep, Deep The bit of comedy at the end was great, you must have a nice wife
 
In all seriousness though, I grew up with many similarities and the story about your grandfather is one that I'll probably echo in future posts if this thread lasts. Your story had a great impact on me as a result.

Thanks guys.  And yes my wife is great.  Except when's she telling me to do yard work. 

That was exceptionally well written Deep and I didn't make it through before it brought a tear to my eye either.  What a wonderful tribute to your Grandfather.  I thoroughly enjoyed the read and understanding what motivates you to Fold. 
 
Rick

I’d heard of “distributed computing” in the past and thought of it as something I wasn’t really interested in doing.  Also, EVGA had long been my GPU provider of choice, but I’d not joined the forums here.  So, I joined the EVGA Forums and started poking around the various sub-forums.  My first exposure to Stanford’s Folding program was from the discussions going on right here in the EVGA F@H forum.  Being unaware of what Stanford was doing, the more I read the more interesting it sounded.  I’ve spent my entire “working life” in mainframe computing, so the idea of worldwide Home PC’s being collectively used to cure diseases was very intriguing and downright “cool”.
 
My wife’s Mom passed away a few years ago due to COPD and Alzheimer’s.  She had been living with us for about 6yrs in our home where we had the privilege of caring for her.  We thoroughly enjoyed doting on her and basically returning the love that she had shared with us her whole life.  It was also not an easy thing to do, especially in the latter years as her health declined.  But it taught us a lot about “giving back” to our parents and that is something that words really can’t contain…it just has to be experienced.  Alzheimer’s is an especially hard disease to watch take hold of someone.  It not only changes their brain, but eventually takes command of the whole body and shuts things down one by one.  It is a disease that no one would want to experience, and unfortunately many people suffer from it every day.
 
So, the concept (and action) of Folding@Home appeals to my desire to help others avoid Alzheimer’s and other life threatening diseases.   It would be the thrill of my life to see the efforts of Folding@Home lead to a cure one day for these diseases.  Computing power is like everything else in life “use it or lose it”.  So, I’m pleased to choose to “use it” for Folding while I’m still here.  A pastor once said to me “do what you can do” and that simple statement has stuck with me in so many ways over the years.  With Folding, it means do what I can regardless of whether I have yet seen all the results in the way of a cure.  Our Folding efforts may not prevent that next loved one from being taken by disease, but we are doing something to help.  Imagine the feeling when our Folding effort leads to disease prevention and saves or extends a life…priceless.
 
Our family, friends and anyone that came to meet my wife’s Mom knew her simply as “Memaw”.  She was a very giving person who very much loved life and those around her.  So, Folding is a great way to honor her memory and hopefully give something back as she generously did in her life.
 
Memaw (1920 – 2007)

 
Rick

Thanks for sharing, this post hits home. Thanks for adding the picture, that was special.

Rick,
 
Great post.  Here to Memaw.  Thanks for bringing Rick our way.