Diary of a Mad Mac

Things you wished you'd never read. Things your mother warned you about. Welcome to the world of an insane Scottish-American. Haggis anyone?

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Location: Abbeville, South Carolina, United States

Sunday, April 10, 2005

The Significance of April Tenth

April tenth is one of those dates that will forever remind me of good and bad for the rest of my life.

In the very early hours of the morning of April 10, 1983 my dad woke me up to tell me that he had gotten a call from my mom and my brother-in-law letting him know that after a long wait my eldest sister had given birth to a baby girl, Holly Jane. I was almost ten years old and I still remember that morning vividly. My first niece, I was such a proud uncle.

On the night of April 10, 2004 while attending the 21st birthday of that very same niece at my sister's house, my sister got a phone call from the hospital informing us that our dad had passed away. The one man who loved me unconditionally, the man who I thought was truely the man of steel was taken from me by cancer.

People who have had near death experiences have said that their whole lives have flashed before their eyes at the moment they thought they were going to die. When I received the news of my dad's death my whole life flashed in front of me. Thirty years with my father, the good times and the bad, then the abrupt realization that from then on out my relationship with him would be reduced to memories. I drove home and went into my dad's room. His favorite pair of pants were laying across the bed just as he had left them. I layed in my dad's bed, held on to those pants and cried harder than I think I have ever cried in my life for probably an hour. I had felt various types of pain in my life. From splitting up with the woman I loved more than life, even up to losing other loved ones, but nothing ever hurt as bad as losing Dad.

Now an entire year has passed. Not a day has gone by that I haven't missed Dad, but it's gotten better. In a piece I wrote that was read at my Dad's funeral I quoted his favorite author, western novelist Louis L'Amour. I will put that quote here now.

"When I die, remember that what you knew of me is with you always. What is buried is only a shell of what was. Do not regret the shell, but remember the man. Remember the father."
-Louis L'Amour

I miss you so much Dad.

And of course, Happy 22nd birthday Holly Jane! Uncle Scott loves ya!

American Cancer Society
www.cancer.org

-S

1 Comments:

Blogger Adder said...

man bro i remember getting the news from Ryan. Im glad you made it through the year man and that you seem to be doing better.

9:00 PM  

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