In Memoriam

Dominik M. Wiktor, MD
1980 ~ 2020

BRAVE: A personal note from Dr. Marisa Witkor

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of brave:
1: Having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty

My biggest lesson in bravery embarked almost three years ago, when my husband Dominik M. Wiktor was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the pancreas.

In April 2017 Dominik was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at 36 years old, during the tail end of his 10 years of medical training. Never once did I hear this man complain, in fact, it was always on the contrary. Dom battled this diagnosis head on and continued to work every week despite a treacherous chemo regimen, radiation, surgery and more chemo. He endured almost three years of continuous treatment with more grace than I knew was humanly possible. His love is unconditional for his family, friends and patients. His mantra was, “it could always be worse, we actually have it really easy.”

Dominik passed away perfectly and peacefully in our home. I served as his primary caretaker on home hospice and he made everything in my life so incredibly easy...even pancreatic cancer, and in the end, even in his passing.

I now truly understand what Alfred Lord Tennyson stated, 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Be brave, live life full, be like Dominik. ~ Marisa

Please consider donating
Dom and Marisa are passionate about funding further research for pancreatic cancer. Please consider a donation to Wings of Hope: https://www.wingsofhopepcr.org/donate.html in Dom’s memory. Wings of Hope is an amazing charity based in Colorado, with 100% of charitable funds going directly to the University of Colorado pancreatic cancer research teams.