Ron Domondon, steadfast friend, athlete, professional, dies at 35
Between hospitalizations in his three-year battle against the disease, he spent a few months of his time in remission training for the 2002 Seattle Marathon. He had been obsessed with his career, but now his focus shifted away from personal achievements and toward the friends whose love kept his spirit alive.
"It was his way of giving back, of proving he was participating in life," said K.C. Dietz, a former co-worker at Seattle Public Utilities. "He realized in the last year of his life how important it was to be loved by his family rather than meet a goal, such as a marathon."
He finished the run in 4 hours, 51 minutes.
"It was the best," recalls his wife, Susanna Domondon. She believes the workouts prepared him to endure what would be another year of exhausting treatments.
Mr. Domondon, 35, died Tuesday (Feb. 3) at home in Seattle.
Friends remember his affectionate personality, which shows in photos his wife posted in an online diary. He was constantly hugging relatives, his nurses at Swedish Medical Center, his co-workers and even some stuffed animals. He played the ukulele in his hospital room.
"He was extremely loyal," said co-worker Denise Klein, who donated white blood cells in a final attempt to fortify his immune system. "He instilled in me a stronger sense of family. He was really close to his cousins; he had a sense of keeping the family together through communication."
Mr. Domondon was born in Okinawa to Filipino parents who lived in several places, including Thailand, Iran and California. He earned a degree in geography from the University of Washington and served as a supply-and-transportation officer in the Air Force.
He later found work in the geographic-information-systems department of Seattle Public Utilities, where he helped establish Sound Transit's mapping system. He played jokes on co-workers, sometimes sending e-mails from someone else's computer or changing the passwords.
"He was a Renaissance man. He could talk about football, about Shakespeare, about religion, about anything, pretty much," Klein said. "He always wanted to share what he knew, not in a conceited way."
His colleagues at the city donated sick days and food, and Mr. Domondon returned to work when possible. Last summer, a team of supporters called the "Ronettes" raised $6,000 in the American Cancer Society's "Relay for Life." Friends and family organized bone-marrow drives in three states, despite the slim odds of finding a match for Mr. Domondon. He gave consent to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to study his leftover blood samples.
"He was really big on the fact that everything that he did would help someone out eventually," his wife said.
The Domondons' Web log presents an intimate look at hospital life — one page provides close-ups of his jaundiced, yellow eyes, while another offers a blood-count log. The online diary was an effective way to inform loved ones scattered around the world, Susanna Domondon said.
As recently as mid-January, after Klein donated the white blood cells, Susanna Domondon hoped her husband would fend off a lung infection. But his improvement didn't last, so he returned home.
Dietz asked him to imagine himself at the top of a hill in Hawaii, bicycling down toward the ocean, where he would walk on the beach. "Let go of the brakes, Ron, just look around and enjoy the ride," she said.
She blew in his face, telling him how good the air felt. He let his life go.
Survivors include parents Arnulfo and Rosario Domondon, and a sister, Rovisita Domondon. A memorial service was held Thursday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Magnolia neighborhood. He will be buried in California.
Ron Domondon's Web site is rnd8.homestead.com/index.html