 might have had something to do with the ostomy bag he wore ever since he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease as a teenager and had part of his lower intestine removed. Theodore Skolnick, my Uncle Ted, died last year at the age of 80, never having once mentioned his illness to me or my brothers. He left a large bequest to the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation to help fund better treatments for these diseases and also to help other people, old and young, seek and get help for the situation that he was never able to talk about.