Sunday night – Remembering Pat and Sam

Today was the 10th anniversary of the day of Sam’s accident.. . As in every year since, we came together  today to remmeber him..

as we were surrounded by our freinds.., we learned that our very close  friend and neigbor Pat Quinn passed away this evening.   Pat and his wife Janet have been our next door neigbors for the past 34 years. Our kids grew up hangining out in their house…  Janet died in 2013… Pat lived alone since.. with lots of familty and freinds around him.

Pat  worked his whole adult life as the butcher for Quinn’s store, the Jonesville store, The richmond Corner Market and the Richmond Market.   He was working there until 2 weeks ago when he got sick..Before that,  I don’t ever recall him being sick a day in the  three and a half  deades I’ve known him.

You could hear him anywhere in the store with his whistling. and his stories.   Like the time our tenants  tapped an Elm tree by accident to get syrup..  he never let me forget that 🙂

Pat  knew everyone.. and everyone loved him  . He was an institution ! .We will all miss Pat so much.. It’s hard to imagine our town without him.

Pat and Janet have a really wonderful family… we are thinkign about them all tonight..

You can read about Pat in this article on  WCAX back  Iin 2012 .. http://www.wcax.com/story/17237821/super-seniors-pat-quinn.. thats where I found these pics.

 

here he is with janet  back in the old store. 

 

The news about Pat came on the 10th anniversary of Sam’saccident. Sam was down visiting freinds in Florida. Sam and his friends Eric and Parker  where crossig a street in Florida  when a car swerved to avoid one of Sam’s freinds. The car hit Sam .. His sould left his body instantly..   His body stayed strong for two more days which allowed him to donate his organs to save 4 other people

Our lives changed forwever that day.. . The 10 years since  have passed in such a strange way..today it seems both long ago and recent.. It has been so, so   hard to be without Sam…. at the same time.. we have been surrounded by so many wonderful people and expereinces.

 

we market today like we have in each of the 10 years.. we began with a hike up Bolton.. aplace that Sam really loved.. Every year we climbe the rickety fire tower at the top and launch fireworks.. THis time we put soem of Sams ashes in teh shell.

 

always strange opeing Samsashes.. 

 

we poured soem in and plugged the hole

 

wow.. just saw we were using Sam’s drill !

 

despite the rain down in the valley.. it was snowing like crazy up at bolton. we had a good size crowd..

 

the climb up was fun..by the top the snow was about 10 inches deep .. It was freezing.. so it felt good to go in the cabin and get out of the wind

 

max, gabe and I went on ahead to do our toast to sam on the tower. It was mid winter at the top .. gale liek winds and blowing snow.. our hands froze instantly ..

 

Duck !

sam when up with a perfect bang !

\

then back to the cabin for a toast to Sam

then down the hill .. some on sleds…

around 5 folks  started showing up for potluck 

 

here are eric and parker

 

here are a bunch of Sam’s really close freinds.. still in our lives .. 

 

 

many miles on these kids.. even soem of them have kids !..

 

soemwhere in the middle of the party we heard about pat.. and we all lifted our glasses to him…

 

a little while later we passsed out RedBull.. sam’s favorite.. and toasted Sam !

we then sat down to make samstones..

these 5 have some of the ashes from Sam’s good freind Puckett who died last year..   we were missing Pucket very much tonight too..

 

it was a emotion filled day.. Rmembering Sam.. being surrounded by firends.. and hearing about Pat..

 

life is full .. and mixed with emotions..

we gotta savor every drop

 

I love you and miss you my son..

nite all,nite sam

-me

Saturday night – airport

It’s about 11 PM and I’m waiting at the airport first for Diane’s flight to arrive and then for Max and Becky.

I had the whole day at home by myself. It was strangely peaceful. I didn’t speak to anyone until about 4 PM. Just me and the dogs.
It was good to have a little downtime after such a busy week.

This afternoon my friend Travis and his fiancé Rachel came into town and I took them to see Deb’s opening. It was a great time. I’m so proud of Deven and her family for what they put together in Douglas Sweets




OK… I think Diane is coming out now.

Tomorrow we all get together to think of Sam. Please join us at 1 PM for a hike up Bolton and 5 PM for a potluck if you can

Nite all, nite Sam
-me

Friday night – way home

I’m in newark on my way home from my 11th trip to munich this year..about 250,000 miles..  71 days there..  and about 14 of those in the air.. strangely enough.. it feels ok..

I’m heading home to take next week off with family and freinds.. I really need it.. I look forward to being witht he folks i love.

On Sunday/Monday  we will mark 10 years since Sam’s death.. its unfathonable to me that it’s been that long ago.. or that recent for that matter.  It hhas been coming over me a couple of times a day for the last coupel of days.. i had a good cry on the plane and that felt good.

It’s weird to mark an ‘anniversary’. like this.. . A few months back I started to feel soem pressure to ‘do’ soemthing to mark 10 years. but… there really is nothing to ‘do’..

like I said.. I’m lookign forward to being with the people I love and bing happy and sad together..

we’re marking the day on Sunday with a 1PM hike up Bolton and a 5 pm potluck at our house. We’ll make samstones and  make soem fire and blow some stuff up in honor of a beutiful kid..   come join us if you’d like

invite is here https://www.facebook.com/events/1757996027751434/.. please share it with anyone you think would like to be there

 

thanks !

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

 

Thursday night – manna

I did somethign impoulsive on my way home form work tonight.. It was about 9:30 and I hadn’t had a proper meal since.. … hmm…   tuesday .. (seriously !) .. I came out of the subway and saw the most beutiful word I’d ever seen

i heard a filet of fish callign me from inside… I could not resist.. i walked in.. and bought   one…

 

I was on a phone  call… .. but managed to eat my oh0so-very0delicious sandhich  before I made the next corner.

I don’t think i’ve everhad anythign that delicious.. really

it was so good.. I went back and got another..

thisone lasted 2 blocks !!!!

life is good !  (truly .. not ironicly)

nite all, nite sam

-me