"How ya feeling," whispered Robert Mcgruder to his friend Eric Chapman.
"Fine, fine," Chapman responds through a breathing tube.
"You look good," said Mcgruder.
They say true friendship is born in adversity.
"I volunteered at an ALS awareness baseball game with the Clearwater Threshers and Eric was chosen to throw out the first pitch," said Mcgruder.
The adversity came for these two friends four years ago. Chapman already suffering from ALS, couldn't make it down to the mound. But Mcgruder, who had just met the man, wouldn't let the moment just pass by.
"So we carried him down the stairs and helped him out to the field and he threw a perfect strike," said Mcgruder. Chapmans eye's lighting up by the memory.
Chapman, now five years into the disease, doesn't have much time left. He lives in pain 24-7 and just getting him to bed takes a team of people.
Now Robert is trying to give his friend one last wish. Hatching a plan to build a covered outdoor patio so Chapman can enjoy the outdoors in his final days.
"They want to build a deck coming out this door kind of along the back of the house with a ramp for him to get outside," said Mcgruder pointing to the now missing steps that lead to the back yard.
However, coming up with $5,500 to pay for it isn't easy.
"To make this dream for my dear friend and brother a reality, I felt I needed to sell something of value to me," said Mcgruder.
The prized possessions up for auction include a 2002 Honda shadow Motorcycle and a signed, authenticated and framed Derek Jeter Yankees jersey.
"It's something I don't want him to do, but he chose to do it, and I'm so grateful," said Chapman.
Robert on the other hand says he's the grateful one, to have found and been inspired by such a brave friend like Eric.
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