Good morning everyone… for those of you that don\u2019t know me, my name is Ian.\u00a0 I am the youngest of Colin\u2019s twin sons.\u00a0 By 26 minutes to be exact.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d first like to say a couple thank yous.<\/p>\n
The staff at the Arizona Burn Center in Phoenix were remarkable. \u00a0Looking back, I can barely comprehend the shock, disbelief, sadness, fatigue and fear we felt during dad\u2019s 85 days there.\u00a0 Although we constantly struggled with uncertainty and not knowing what the future held for us, we were certain of one thing: that Dad was in the right place.\u00a0 The staff treated Dad as if he were their own family.\u00a0 Dr. Klemens, Dr. Peck, Dr. Sadler, John, Susan, Tom, Laura, Trish, Stephanie…thank you for your dedication to your work and for treating Dad so well.<\/p>\n
I also want to take the time to thank some of the very special individuals who provided so much support to us \u2013 and Dad — in the last several months.\u00a0 Colin and I have been overwhelmed by your thoughtfulness and we know dad would have been as well.<\/p>\n
And to everyone else, you\u2019ve been truly amazing.\u00a0 Dad lived in a remarkable community with remarkable friends.\u00a0 The outpouring of support, even from those of you that only knew Dad for a short time, means the world to us, and has been so very comforting over the last several months.\u00a0 I have a newfound appreciation for how much a card, email or short phone call can mean.\u00a0 Thanks so much for all of them.\u00a0 Thanks so much for being you.\u00a0 Thanks so much for loving Dad.<\/p>\n
Probably Dad\u2019s two biggest passions in recent years were motorcycles and his dog Precious.\u00a0 Man, he loved them both.\u00a0 Dad sometimes closed his emails to Ann by calling himself the \u201cBig Hairy Biker Dude with a Dog Named Precious.\u201d\u00a0 He loved the freedom of riding his motorcycle and he loved everything that came with it.\u00a0 Yes, he loved the tattoos and the leather, but mostly he loved the people and the camaraderie.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been fortunate to meet some very special people since Dad\u2019s accident and I can see why dad loved being a biker.\u00a0 You are all family.<\/p>\n
Life has never seemed as short as it has these last several months.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found myself thinking a lot about life in general, and about what is most important.\u00a0 For me family is most important\u2026and Dad was the core.\u00a0 I am lucky to have had a father that loved me as much as he did.\u00a0 He showed it constantly.\u00a0 I\u2019ll forever cherish my memories with him and be grateful for what he made me able to achieve.\u00a0 Dad made the world a better place. <\/strong>I\u2019m lucky that he was \u2013 and always will be \u2013 my father.<\/p>\n It seems that my fondest childhood memories happened because of Dad.\u00a0 One summer while I was in elementary school, dad spent weeks customizing a camper on the back of his Ford pick-up truck so he could take my mom, brother and me on a trip to his beloved West.\u00a0 This is where I started my first rock collection, spotted my first coyote and was given my first cowboy hat \u2013 all because of dad.\u00a0 He made our life so memorable \u2013 and taught me so much \u2013 because he shared his passions with us.<\/p>\n One of Dad\u2019s biggest passions was rescue.\u00a0 I fondly remember the countless days I spent with Dad at the Volunteer Rescue Squad in Leesburg, Virginia.\u00a0 Dad immersed himself in all things rescue \u2013 he eventually earned about every designation possible and was elected as the President of the local rescue squad, and the Vice President of the Virginia state association.\u00a0 Dad did everything from teaching instructor courses to performing show and tell to our grade-school classmates.\u00a0 Colin and I especially enjoyed our weekends when we would dress up with fake wounds (many which included fake blood) so that Dad\u2019s students would have the opportunity to practice.\u00a0 Every kid should be so lucky as us to have a dad like ours.<\/p>\n When I was in high school, dad moved the family to Michigan for work, so our family was making one of several car trips from Virginia to Michigan during the transition.\u00a0 On one particular trip, we happened upon a single vehicle accident \u2013 involving a big rig on the Pennsylvania Turnpike \u2013 just after it happened.\u00a0 Dad had barely stopped the car when he dashed to the trunk for a first aid kit and disappeared in traffic to assist the driver.\u00a0 Colin and I spent the next two hours sitting on top of our rented U-Haul trailer watching in absolute pride as Dad climbed into the rig and administered aid to the unknown trucker.\u00a0 Dad stayed with him the entire time.\u00a0 What a role model.\u00a0 Dad was always compassionate and helpful of others; I\u2019ve always admired this trait in him.\u00a0 He would drop anything to help someone in need.\u00a0 Dad, you made the world a better place. <\/strong><\/p>\n Dad was smart, too.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve ever been on one of his jeep tours, heard him recite his cowboy poetry or challenged him to a game of Trivial Pursuit, you would know this.\u00a0 Dad could work his way around a Trivial Pursuit gameboard, win all the categories, and return to the finish in only five or six turns.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the rest of us would still be working to answer our first question correctly.<\/p>\n Dad was talented at so many things.\u00a0 He played the saxophone and majored in music in college.\u00a0 His passed this love of music on to my brother and me; Colin becoming a professional percussionist and me playing the trumpet through college. We have Dad to thank for this.\u00a0 Dad loved musical theater and acted in several local productions including Pirates of Penzance, Fiddler on the Roof and Annie Get Your Gun.\u00a0 He worked for a while as a professional cowboy poet \u2013 he was the greatest story teller.\u00a0 And Dad was especially fond of American history, in particular the west.\u00a0 From civil war battles to Indian lore, dad knew it all.\u00a0 His love for the West eventually led him to Arizona and the Prescott area.\u00a0 Dad even competed in rodeo, during his younger years of course.<\/p>\n He was an artist\u2026most recently using an airbrush, but for a very long time, doing leatherwork.\u00a0 He was so good at his leatherwork that he built a small business around it called Custom Cowboy Creations.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve seen his truck, you know the logo.\u00a0 He was also a skilled carpenter; always willing to help out friends or family with the latest home project.\u00a0 I\u2019ll always cherish my late night phone calls asking him for project advice.\u00a0 Dad, you made the world a better place.<\/strong><\/p>\n Dad was always the life of the party, no matter how big or how small.\u00a0 He could talk to someone in 5 minutes like he knew them a life-time.\u00a0 He was good at making people laugh, and was even better at his own laugh.\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of a more genuine, deep from the belly, smile from ear-to-ear and sparkling-in-his-eyes laugh\u2026the thought of it will always bring a smile to my face.\u00a0 If you ever want to know what made him laugh, just watch one of his favorite movies: \u201cThe Party\u201d with Peter Sellers or \u201cPlanes, Trains and Automobiles\u201d with Steve Martin and John Candy.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen dad cry a few times; a couple of these times were while watching these movies.\u00a0 He laughed a lot with us, some of the best times during our holiday game sessions of Cranium or Scattegories.<\/p>\n Dad was a great father for so many reasons.\u00a0 He was proud of his ancestry and passed this on to us.\u00a0 He taught himself to play the bagpipes and drove Colin several hours a week to play drums in the Washington Scottish Bagpipe Band.\u00a0 We attended concerts, dinners, balls and countless Highland Games to watch the caber toss and Shetland Sheepdog competitions.<\/p>\n Dad would haven given the world to my brother and me if he had it.\u00a0 And even if he didn\u2019t have it, he still tried to give it to us.\u00a0 As the years pass, I become more and more aware of how much he provided for us \u2013 unquestionably, he made it his #1 priority to make sure we were happy, even if things weren\u2019t going his way.\u00a0 I remember one Christmas when our bikes disappeared in the weeks leading up to the holiday.\u00a0 On Christmas morning, Colin and I had brand new refurbished bikes waiting for us next to the tree.\u00a0\u00a0 Dad had taken our bikes to the rescue squad and worked countless hours to paint them in our favorite colors, install new parts and put custom number plates on the front \u2013 Colin had a big #1 on his purple bike and I had a big #2 on my gold bike.\u00a0 When he had nothing, we never knew it.\u00a0 He made us feel like the richest kids on earth.\u00a0 I\u2019ll miss dad\u2019s big hugs and loving smiles, but I\u2019ll miss his love most of all.\u00a0 Dad, you made the world a better place. <\/strong><\/p>\n I always think of Dad on July 4th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Dad owned a yellow aluminum canoe for as long as I can remember.\u00a0 While we were in elementary school, Dad realized that our yellow canoe was our chance to see the fireworks at the National Mall in Washington D.C.; from a pristine location.\u00a0 So the four of us, life jackets and paddles in hand, loaded up the canoe and set sail in the Potomac River just west of the Kennedy Center.\u00a0 There we where, afloat, in the dark, among dozens of motor yachts ten times our size.\u00a0 It remains one of my fondest memories ever.\u00a0 Dad, once again, made us feel like there were no boundaries; like we could do anything and have a great time doing it.\u00a0 I\u2019ll always smile on July 4th<\/sup>, thinking of Dad, while I watch the Capital fireworks on TV wishing I were with him in our yellow canoe.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to find words to convey the overwhelming sense of loss since my father\u2019s passing.\u00a0 I find myself struggling with the feeling that something that was so definite is now gone.\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of anything or anyone that was such a constant in my life.\u00a0 If I called, he picked up the phone.\u00a0 If I needed something, he would provide it.\u00a0 He was always the person I could count on… he was such an amazing person in so many ways.<\/p>\n I find some comfort knowing that Dad isn\u2019t completely gone… part of him is all around us.\u00a0 He left my brother and me new family and friends in all of you.\u00a0 He left me my brother and my mother.\u00a0 Most importantly, he left me who I am today.\u00a0 I am proud of what I\u2019ve accomplished in life and who I am.\u00a0 This was my father\u2019s greatest gift to me.\u00a0 There is the saying that we are a product of our environment.\u00a0 Dad thanks for my life, my values and all the wonderful memories.\u00a0 In the future, when I am the most happy I will remember you and know that I have you to thank.\u00a0 I am who I am today because I knew you…<\/p>\n I miss you, Dad.\u00a0 And I love you even more.\u00a0 I always have and always will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good morning everyone… for those of you that don\u2019t know me, my name is Ian.\u00a0 I am the youngest of Colin\u2019s twin sons.\u00a0 By 26 minutes to be exact. I\u2019d first like to say a couple thank yous. The staff … Continue reading