On August 30, 2019, I was awaken an hour before I normally get up to be told that my grandfather (who was dealing with cancer in his bone that transferred from his pancreas after that was taken out) had passed away in his sleep at the age of 88. I believe I mentioned in my blog about the Raptors winning the NBA Title that he was probably going to pass away that week I was doing that blog. Well, he lived a bit longer, but I knew the days were numbered.
Dennis McCarthy (who many called Frank because of his middle name being Francis, but us grandchildren called him Gumpa because when his first grandson (my cousin) called him as a baby that, he never wanted to be called anything else) was a man who while he had some outdated views on the world by 2019 standards, was a very "do it yourself" individual and a man who you could respect for his actions. He was the son of an ice maker/bar owner during the Great Depression and he served in the Navy during the Korean War. After that, he became a high school teacher and eventually vice principal. He was always active and to tell you how active he was with workouts and stuff, at around his 70s, he was still walking a mile around town and going to the gym for a regimen that left me and my brother in aches the time we tried it (yeah, he believed in no pain, no gain). He chopped his own wood in the front yard of his house until they day he really couldn't because of a broken hip (which was a year before he contracted the cancer that would kill him ultimately).
Which is why this disease really hurt to watch. Here was a man who was older than I am and for my life, was more fit than I ever was and so vibrant about the world. To see that cancer destroy him to the point that the last time I saw him, he was extremely skinny and could sadly not get out of a chair without help. I had chances to go up after that time, but I really couldn't, mostly because I would be just too sad to see him in the state he was when it got worse (like him going yellow because of kidney failure or that he ended up in hospice care before ultimately wanting to die at his own home). It may be cowardly of me to not want to see him at end, but I just couldnt do it.
For 30 years of my life, I had both of my grandfathers living and now at 35, they have sadly passed away. This may be a sad post and as I am writing it, it is hard to keep my composure. But I will always remember the man who seemed like he could do almost anything even when he was he had long since retired and I will always remember in 2004, when as a lifelong suffering Red Sox fan, he finally saw his team break the Curse of the Bambino and win the World Series and how happy he was when it happened.
You will be incredibly missed, Gumpa.
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