READING, Pa – At first glance – a big gathering at Victor Emmanuel’s in Reading – looks like a pretty swingin’ Memorial Day bash.<\/p>\n
“The counts supposed to about be about 300 people that showed up,\u201d said Dennis Ganter of Reading.<\/p>\n
It has all the tell-tale signs – food, family and friends.<\/p>\n
“It warms me up,\u201d said Ganter. \u201cSee my friends come in on a holiday. To see me. That means a lot.”<\/p>\n
But it’s not a Memorial Day party – its a living wake.<\/p>\n
For who, you ask?<\/p>\n
The silver fox sporting blue – Dennis Ganter of Reading.<\/p>\n
Why, you might also ask? Well, that’s a question even the man himself had trouble answering.<\/p>\n
Ganter was diagnosed with terminal stage-four cancer last summer.<\/p>\n
“Instead of going out with a hardship of the viewing and the funeral. I thought I’d have a live party and invite my friends, whoever wanted to show up,\u201d said Ganter.<\/p>\n
Now, he’s focusing on the stages that really matter.<\/p>\n
“That’s why they come to see me, all the different stages of my life,\u201d Ganter said.<\/p>\n
Because everybody knows Dennis Ganter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe king of Reading is his nickname, because he is very well known in the area,\u201d said his daughter, Joie Mckim.<\/p>\n
It’s not often you get to describe the life of the party as brave.<\/p>\n
“They initially told us one month, and it’s been nine months, so we just live each day and just do it the best we can,\u201d said Mckim.<\/p>\n
His loved ones are hoping it serves as a motivator.<\/p>\n
\u201cMakes him want to keep trying, keep fighting, keep eating and to keep going,\u201d Mckim said.<\/p>\n
Perhaps a surprisingly poignant metaphor from his nine-year-old grandson says it best.<\/p>\n
“It’s like an engine,\u201d Bexton said. \u201cThe engine supports the car. Without the engine, you can’t keep going. You just stay there.”<\/p>\n
If this unique gathering is any indication – Ganter’s engine is strong – and there are a lot of people behind that car – pushing it forward.<\/p>\n
“It’s just a great feeling. I’m honored to have these people in my life,\u201d said Bexton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa – At first glance – a big gathering at Victor Emmanuel’s in Reading – looks like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[101293,736,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-234671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-dennis-ganter","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}