As a man living with multiple sclerosis for more than a decade, Jerry Hoeke had his good days and his bad.

One of his best in recent years came in October, 2008 when he and his family (wife, daughters and their boyfriends, and grandchildren) went to an indoor water park at Wisconsin Dells.

It would be the last vacation the Hoekes would take together.

Jerry insisted that his future son-in-law Tommy take him up the high platform to ride a water slide.

“He would not leave Tommy alone. He kept telling him, ‘Take me down that water slide again!’” his wife Linda Hoeke said. “We were all just amazed because it was so hard for him to go up steps, but he made it up all those steps (a few times).”

Gerald F. Hoeke, 65, of Kenosha, died Sept. 30, leaving his wife of 35 years, Linda; two daughters, Amanda Robinson and Debra Aalto; two grandchildren, Aleesha Koslica and Mikal Robinson; a brother, Fredric Hoeke; and his beloved Japanese spaniel Snoopy.

Jerry was born in Kenosha, the baby of the family. He attended area schools and graduated from Bradford High School in 1962.

Jerry and his future wife Linda met at Earl’s Club just outside of Kenosha about 1964 and dated briefly.

He served in the U.S. Army for a one-year tour in Vietnam.

Sometime after his return, he contacted Linda, who was by then a widow with a baby. They began dating once again and were married in 1974 at St. Mary’s Lutheran Church.

“So I guess it was meant to be,” Linda said.

Jerry and Linda added another little girl to their family, but Jerry never considered his older daughter, Debbie, as a stepchild. He was the only daddy Debbie could remember, and his love for her was on an equal footing with his younger daughter, Amanda.

He worked at S.C. Johnson Co. in Racine for 31 years, first as a materials handler and later in the shipping and receiving department.

Jerry struggled with his health for more than a decade before being officially diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998. In the weeks before his death, he was also diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“A lot of people knew what he was dealing with, and people would ask him, ‘How are you doing, Jerry?’ He’d always say ‘I’m doing OK.’ He never complained even though he was in a lot of pain, until the last six months when it was extremely painful,” Linda said.

He was a member of the MS Society, and he and Linda organized the annual MS Walk in Kenosha from 1999 to 2004. He would get donations from area businesses, and with the help from the students at Indian Trail Academy would distribute fliers for the event.

A little over a year after he returned from Vietnam, he bought a new gold 1969 Dodge Charger that was his pride and joy.

His interest in muscle cars naturally expanded into NASCAR racing, and he was a big fan of driver Richard Petty. Among the many races he was able to attend was the very first Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis in the early 1990s. He also had a collection of more than 200 die-cast NASCAR models.

Each holiday season, it was Jerry who would build the Christmas village at the Hoeke home. Starting right after Thanksgiving, he would set up the village, setting up the ceramic houses, businesses and countryside accessories.

“He would take three weeks setting it up because he was so meticulous about it,” Linda said. “It even had a northern part with a log cabin, trees and deer.”

But Jerry hadn’t been able to take on even this favorite chore in the last couple of years.

“His hands had gotten so shaky, and he couldn’t balance things anymore,” Linda said.

But even when his body didn’t work the way he wanted it, Jerry made extra effort to be at the events that were important in his family.

He went to as many of his grandchildren’s bowling matches as he could and was there when his daughter Amanda married Tommy on Aug. 15.

“He was very special, let me tell you,” Linda said.