KELOLAND

WATERTOWN, SD - A Watertown family is saying goodbye to a son, brother, and their hero.

Clark Kimble was a 25 year old (24) who enjoyed listening to music and spending time with friends and family. But one year ago his liver shut down and doctors don't know why. After dozens of hospital stays and transfusions, Clark lost his fight. Now four of his brothers are remembering Super Clark.

“I looked up to him and he always looked out for me,” Wyatt Kimble said.

“It feels like someone's being robbed from you, something's being stolen,” Fletcher Kimble said.

“Always my brother, always there,” Bjorn Kimble said.

“The hardest thing for me is knowing that you can't call him. That's the hardest for me, you can never talk to him again, no matter how bad you need him,” Myls Kimble said.

Clark was one of eight children in the close-knit Kimble family.

“I think he was fighting for everybody else not just himself. He knew how much everyone looked up to him and just trying to be a good big brother,” Myls said.

Last July Clark noticed his skin and eyes yellowing, and doctors discovered his liver was failing. They put Clark on the transplant list for a new liver, and a month later that liver came. (It was only a couple days later. That's all the time he had.)

“You never knew that this was going to happen, I mean we figured if he got a new liver everything would be alright,” Bjorn said.

But it wasn't. Clark's body rejected the organ. The next step would be a bone marrow transplant, and two brothers were a match. (His body never rejected the liver. They believe that the virus that initially attacked his liver moved to his bone marrow.)

“Some days you go to bed thinking everything is ok and then the next thing you wake up and things turn for the worse,” Wyatt said.

Medical bills were piling up, and Medicaid denied Clark's request for the bone marrow procedure. For months, the Kimble’s fought three separate appeals, finding out just a week ago that they'd lost again.

“He had to have the worst problems in the world but he handled them better than anybody I know,” Wyatt said.

But his family's love and support wasn't enough to keep him going any longer. Friday evening he died.

“Who knows how long any of us is going to live? And we're going to be a brother short the rest of our lives,” Fletcher said.

“I know Clark wouldn't want us to sit in our rooms. He'd want us out there and keep living,” Myls said.

Now together, they'll remember their big brother, a man they called Super Clark and a super hero.

“It's hard to have anyone gone in your life but you know he's still there and that he loves you,” Bjorn said.

Funeral services are set for Saturday, June 19 at 11:00. Viewing to be held Friday at the Wight Comes & Sogn Funeral Chapel at 4:00.

Funds have been set up for the Kimble family at Reliabank and Plains Commerce banks in Watertown.