A Great Man

If you've been following my blog then you know that I recently got back from Connecticut a few weeks ago.  I felt certain that I needed to be at my friend's side as her Dad had become suddenly and deathly ill and the one hope for treatment for him was slipping beyond his grasp.

Skip and Linda Madin are the parents of my high school bff, Liz.  I moved to Connecticut at 15 and when I started school, I was lucky enough to have Liz set her sights on me.  She just marched over to me and introduced herself.  It seemed like then and there she decided that we would be friends.  She tucked my bushy eyebrowed, wide-eyed, hippie haired, unsure little self under her wing and told me all I needed to know about the inner workings of our tiny little school (sometimes I wish I had listened a little better to those tips) and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.  Liz's parents took me in as well, with no questions asked and no reservations.  They loved me.  My high school years were very troubled and wrought with turmoil, grief, anxiety, and confusion.  The stability of the Madin home and the love, acceptance, and guidance I found within it was a gift that I can never repay.  I love every member of the Madin family as if they were my own.  As I've grown older, gotten married, and had children, the Madin's love for me has never flickered or gone out (nor mine for them).  Even though there have been times that we haven't kept in touch, I still feel welcomed home when I visit and it has been so beautiful to see them love my kids and watch my kids respond in kind.

Liz got married this June to her highschool sweetheart and I dragged my clan over to the east coast to be there.  I will never forget how Elliott stuck to "Grandpa Skip" as if they were joined at the hip.

It was sudden and cruel to find out that a sudden weight loss was due to a rare blood disorder called amyloidosis.  And even crueler still, the disease progressed so rapidly that they never even had time to start the treatment for the disease.

At noon on Tuesday our beloved, Everret (Skip) Madin was taken home to be with Jesus.  Which is just about the only comforting thing to hold on to right now.  We are glad that he is no longer struggling in a disease-ridden body, but his absence leaves a whole the size of Texas in our hearts.

I feel guilty to sound so dramatic, especially as the pain his real family is feeling is so so so much more than mine, but you see, you just have to know what kind of man he was, because if he meant this much to me, you can only imagine how much greater he must be in the eyes of his family.  So please say a prayer for the Madin Family and may the Lord comfort them in this time of sorrow and help them remember and trust that His ways are above our ways and beyond our understanding...

To read more about this great man, check out this article that appeared on the front page of the Litchfield County Newspaper, The Register Citizen: City Judge Dies at 57.

And this one here.