Lehi charity co-founder dies at 45

Paul Berg's final years on this earth were never meant to be written as a four-part series in a newspaper; it just happened. This is the final chapter — the unfortunate, but foreseen, conclusion to a chain of articles extending over four years.

The 45-year-old Lehi resident died in his sleep just after midnight Tuesday.

"I was able to be by his side as he slipped away," his wife, Tiffany Berg, said. "It was truly beautiful and miraculous."

But she hasn't always carried such a solemn peace about her husband's tissue-ravaging mouth cancer, which doctors determined was incurable five months ago.

When the Deseret News first wrote about her husband in 2005, she was quoted as saying she "kind of went off the deep end" when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2003. "I wasn't graceful about it."

Still, Paul Berg hoped for a long life with his wife and five children. After all, he had completed a successful surgery by that time and was, by all definitions, a cancer survivor. It seemed like a good ending.

But that March, the cancer returned. It attacked his mouth and jaw with such strength that more than a dozen surgeries couldn't curb its cruelty. He immediately contemplated a "bucket list" when doctors broke the life-shattering news in February that he would likely die in three to 24 months. One of his bucket wishes: to finish building the classic muscle car he and his father had begun a year earlier, a 1965 Cobra.

Rumor spread, and an amateur crew of classic-car enthusiasts quickly assembled. They committed to helping Paul Berg complete the car in three weeks. Perhaps volunteers fell in line so quickly because he himself had a reputation for charitable work. He and his wife had co-created a nationally recognized Utah charity in 2004. Heart 2 Home Foundation builds and remodels homes for people just like Paul Berg, who struggle with life-threatening or life-altering conditions.

Without his knowledge, his wife and friends orchestrated a two-week volunteer operation blitz: Provo's Kirkham Motorsports took over the amateur crew and finished the half-built hot rod, without charge — in the same shop where they had built about 700 other Cobras. Unique Auto Body in South Jordan gave it a free gleaming coat of paint before volunteers surprised him with the completed car. He got to enjoy his car for three and a half months.

Three days before he died, his wife summed up her feelings about the forboding time to come, calling it a period of "sweet surrender," because she said that even though her family wants to "kick and scream and escape" at the thought of losing him, they're always reduced to tears — and eventually the will of God.

"That sweet surrender is a sacred place," she said. "That is peace."

To read more about Paul Berg follow these Deseret news links:

Cancer cutting life but not Utahn's living

Paul Berg - Obituary

Riding a revamped Cobra, courtesy of good friends

e-mail: jhancock@desnews.com