To the family of Doctor Harvey Rose- Please accept my great condolence for your loss and for one of modern medicines greatest losses. I was a young man, in my early twenties and suffering from a spinal and other joint disease when I read of your fathers work for pain management. i had been to every specialist I could imagine and lost a job due to unrelenting severe chronic pain. I went from a six foot tall former Army medic to suffering from severe chronic pain from a disease known as Ankylosing Spondylitis. The disease fused my spine in a forward curving position, taking over nine inches of height from me as well as my spines ability to flex and move. Now most of my spine is fused, still quite painful. I have had one hip replaced, the other is quite painful but thanks to your father I never went so far as to take my life. Doctor Rose, one of the kindest, most humble human beings I have ever met, took me as a patient even when I worked for Kaiser, did not have insurance that would compensate your father but he met with me and took me as a patient in the mid 1990's, he saved my life and gave me reason to live. I was able to continue working until I was thirty years old and had my first total hip replacement. Kaiser Docs knew this was a severely painful disease, they saw me on a daily basis, did not disagree with pain management but would not take over the care your father offered me. I have only met a few human beings who can stand in the same room with your father, making sure his patients don't give up on life, keeping pain at an acceptable and tolerable level so family and life can be wonderful as they should. I have been looked down at by so many for my pain medication use, but no one seems to say things like "wow, Tom, it must be terrible to lose so much of what life has to offer at such a young age". Your father always made comments like that, knowing he understood what pain and disease can rob a human being of. Your father allowed me to live and to work until arthritis cost me one hip replacement and now has completely fused my spine. When I started seeing your father, I was just shy of six feet tall, now i am barely five feet three inches. None of this was taken surgically, it was due simply to genetics and bad luck- but your father gave me reason to live, to give life a second chance and fight. I left Sacramento in 2000, moving back to Minnesota where my family is- not before your father asked and made absolutely sure I would have continued pain management. Doctor Harvey Rose was one of the kindest, most sincere doctor and human being I have ever met, he saved my life and gave me reason to fight and live. I try to live my life with thoughts of how your father lived life and how he saw life, he was and is one of the most sincere and kindest human beings I have ever met. Fortunately, there are some other Doctors willing to also take on the fight against chronic pain, but Doctor Harvey Leon Rose was the lion in the fight for patients with constant, horrible pain as their closest companions, he gave us reason to fight and to live, God and Heaven has a very special place for Doctor Rose. It was a pleasure to know him, he taught me how to fight the battle against pain, he saved my life and I mean that in the most kind and sincere way. I miss my appointments with Doctor Rose, as he always asked about how my life was, not just how my pain and disease was. Thank God for your father, for his courage and willingness to fight for his patients and what he believed was right. He initiated pain legislation in California with Senator Greene with other states using California's legal legislation as an example and forum for their own legislation- this has undoubtably saved countless lives and made them better and worth living. God bless Doctor Harvey Rose, I have no doubt he now flies with the other angels looking over family, friends and patients, continuing his work from Heaven. God bless Doctor Harvey Leon Rose for being the blessed man and Physician he was and is- may humanity remember him for his endless, tireless work for his patients and those in intractable, chronic pain. I will remember him as long as I live as the Doctor who helped me live a life dominated by pain but with his help, at a level tolerable to me. Thank God for Doctor Rose and those who fought with him and continue the work in the endless fight against intractable, chronic pain. God bless Doctor Rose and those who fought with him, his peers, professionals and his blessed family. May another angel put its arms around Dr. Rose and give him a hug for me and others who miss his smile, his kindness and endless commitment to those in pain. God bless the family and others who gave so much along with Doctor Rose in the fight against chronic pain- may Heaven hold a special place for you. Thomas Grinnell-Rochester, Minnesota, formerly of Sacramento, California.