We know how this ends. That's the title of Bruce Kramer's memoir about his life with ALS.

A lifelong educator and musician, he was diagnosed with the disease five years ago and began

hospice last fall. He died while we were producing this conversation for air. From the

moment of his diagnosis, Bruce Kramer began to write, openly, deeply, and spiritually,

about his struggle to live while dying. His words hold a biting joy and beauty and reveal

an unexpected view inside this disease.

What I found as I told people about ALS was they began to tell me about ALS. They began

to tell me about the ALS they carried. They began to tell me about the struggles that they

were working through too. I think that they told me not because it was a way of cleansing

or a way of… but it was a way of saying, we carry these things. I want you to know I'm

carrying something just like you are. What I began to realize is that these things that

we carry, these struggles, emotional, physical, spiritual, that these struggles, they weren't

transparent, but that ALS revealed them.

I'm Christa Tippett and this is on being.

Bruce Kramer was the dean of the College of Education, Leadership and Counseling at the

University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, where he served on the faculty for over 19 years.

He was also a passionate music lover and was a choir conductor for most of his adult

life. When I met him, he was confined to a wheelchair, breathing with the help of a

mask connected to a bipat machine. I sat with him and his wife Ev at their home in

suburban Minneapolis.

In 2010, you were 54 at the age I am now. You just completed your second year as the dean

of the College of Education, Leadership and Counseling. Your kids were grown and settled.

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