It was with sadness and shock I learned of the death of a kind, loving, amiable, fun man last week. Marc McAllister (Davis) lost his battle with cancer. For some reason this news caused more upset than I expected and should be allowed. I knew Marc throughout Secondary school and then as part of a wider ‘Rock Scene’ as we grew from 16 onwards. He and his friends frequented the same places as me and mine and we had lots of good times. I lost touch after moving to University and am eternally grateful to Facebook for finding him, and many other long-lost friends once again.
I have read his blog (linked on here as riddlermarc) as his ongoing battle continued and stalked him on facebook as I do others (;P). I read the words ‘terminal cancer’ but did not register them. I did not believe them. Marc was Marc, his humour and vitality, his love and joy for and in his family and his jokes and fun times with his friends, meant terminal was irrelevant. I honestly believed he would just go on forever with occasional hospital stays.
How stupid was I?!
He will be sorely missed, obviously by those closest to him, but also by those of us on the periphery of his life. I learned of his death just prior to leaving work and my immediate reaction was to stem the tears whilst blasting Kiss’s version of ‘God gave Rock and Roll to you’ out of my car windows. It seemed appropriate. From Marc I have learned to stop sweating the small stuff. He, and a previous old rocker mucker ‘Little’ Nick Pyne who also left us too young, have consolidated what I always knew but often forgot and will no doubt forget in the future, to cherish my family and friends and take enjoyment where I find it. To take risks, to take a chance and if it pays off, share the joy and if it doesn’t, learn and move on. Marc continued to blog and join in laughs on facebook, only now do I realise how much of a struggle and how much pain he must have been in when he did so. Brave to the end.
I’m also very pleased that I had revealed my crush on him as a sideline comment under a photo. Remembering how we were thought of by the other more popular and less geeky elements at school, I hoped this would make him smile and think about how we would never have believed anyone liked us back then. It did make him smile and I am so glad now that I told the world! However this was only done so because the crush is 22 years out of date! No other crushes will be told as no other crushes would take it in the gentle laughing manner the ‘confession’ was intended. I hope it made Hayley, his wife, smile too.
So, I shall continue to think of Marc with sadness that he is gone, but with gladness that I was lucky enough to have known him. And I shall continue to send love and warm thoughts to his no doubt devastated family.
