Rob Estes’ landscaping business boomed in 2013. Not only had Estes Landscape scheduled a lot of landscape installation jobs and became a landscape designer for a majority of the landscape at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, a film studio south of Atlanta, but Estes hoped to add a nursery to his Georgia-based company that year. He was also busy managing his father’s Big Red Oak hunting plantation and a local tree farm.
But as 2013 progressed, Estes began to get headaches frequently. Family and co-workers say he seemed a little more irritable and forgetful. Estes thought he might be stressed, so he went to his doctor to get medications for his migraines.
His conditions worsened, though, and on Aug. 16, 2013, he was rushed to an urgent care for a CT scan. “That’s when we heard the words, ‘there’s a mass,’” says Christi Estes, his wife.
It was then that Estes learned he had grade 4 glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. Doctors at Piedmont Healthcare’s Atlanta Hospital removed parts of the tumor in an emergency surgery not long after diagnosis. However, doctors didn’t think the cancer would go away, as glioblastoma moves quickly and is an aggressive form of brain cancer.
“When he was diagnosed, Rob’s first response was, ‘How can I beat it?’” she says. “Their response was, ‘You can’t. You need to get your affairs in order. You probably have a life expectancy of 12 to 15 months.’”
Estes wasn’t one to let his diagnosis dissuade him from living his everyday life. Many colleagues and friends say he remained optimistic. “I don’t think he felt as if he was going to die,” Christi says. “He thought he could beat it. That’s the attitude it takes sometimes to battle this type of cancer.”
