"The tale of Lee Johnson, a California groundskeeper who was diagnosed with terminal cancer he alleged was caused by his exposure to Monsanto's Roundup herbicides."
"Sunlight had not yet started to streak its way across the Northern California landscape as 41-year-old Lee Johnson pushed himself up out of bed. In the darkness, he pulled on a pair of jeans and a hooded shirt bearing a patch from the Benicia Unified School District. Down the hall, Lee's wife, Araceli, prodded their two young sons into wakefulness. There was no hint that Lee's life was about to take a tragic turn.
Rising early was not just a habit; it was a requirement of Lee's job as a groundskeeper for the school district, which rotated roughly five thousand students through its mix of elementary, middle, and high schools. Lee had been in his current position for only a year but enjoyed a broad job description and a five-figure salary that helped his family claw its way out of near homelessness and into a middle-class lifestyle. They had recently moved into a split-level two-bedroom house in what the young family considered an affluent neighborhood in the city of Vallejo. The beige stucco was not really theirs—just a rental—but it felt like home. The kitchen boasted black marble countertops and maplewood floors, and a small children's park was just a few paces from the front door. Lee loved the tall, leafy trees that lined the streets and the grassy backyard, where a family of squirrels cackled as they chased each other through the branches.
Lee's income, combined with what Araceli earned from various part-time jobs, provided enough for an occasional vacation with the kids and a sense of contentment that Lee had long craved. He still wrote music and dreamed of selling and performing his songs, but his focus was on his family, specifically on being as present and engaged with his sons as possible. He did not want them growing up feeling his absence, the way he had with his own father. Lee had a tattoo inscribed on his forearm reading "Blessings for the righteous." The blessings for his family had finally started to flow, Lee believed."
SEE ALSO:
"The Monsanto Papers: Getting Dirty, Part 2" (Environmental Health News)
