Episode 90: 10 Years Without My Dad

Show Notes

Episode 90

00:00

Hi, I’m Rob Cairns. I’m the founder CEO and Chief creator amazing ideas had stunning digital marketing. hope everybody’s having a great day today. Today I want to dive in to something. And someone really important to me. 10 years ago, we lost my father due to pancreatic cancer now planning to do a podcast on my dad, and the legacy that he left behind. So sit back, relax, grab a drink, and enjoy his podcast.

00:39

Hey, Rob parents here today want to talk about someone who was really important to me. And frankly, I miss very much and that’s my father. My dad, Bruce Lennox, Karen’s passed away due to pancreatic cancer 10 years ago. Unfortunately, it’s one of those diseases, they normally catch light, often in stage four. And at that point expectancy life fuzzier to three years. You know, I miss my dad every day, and I think about him all the time. And I really do miss him. Some other notable people have had pancreatic cancer and good Steve Jobs, Patrick Swayze. And of course, Canada’s own our extra back. And all of them had their battles with this awful disease. But really, for this, I wanted to focus on some of the things about my dad. Those You know, I’m a big sports fan. And I think God that came from my father and his brothers, they were all big sports fans. And, you know, I’ve always been a fan of goaltenders in hockey, my favorite of all time number 29 Ken Dryden, then after him knows Patrick Wah, and after him knows Carey Price with some guys in between, but they don’t really matter. But, you know, my favorite goaltender was my father, my father played golf for the lachute High School, and always play golf. And, you know, it’s interesting to say the least, my wife was sports card. Sports collectible collecting comes from my dad. Many years ago, my father brought home from me from the Montreal children’s sports. So I birdie dinner, a program signed by john belvo. And that’s kind of what started the craze. Now, interestingly enough, Shah belvo roomed with my favorite player of all time in his magical season in 1971, being Ken Dryden, how sat for twist, gets even better. The job elbow passed away on my father’s birthday, after my dad had passed away. And Ken dragons birthday, it turns out, is Jill’s and my wedding anniversary, how’s that for food for thought, a lot of twists. They’re all because my father, my dad was a really supportive man, very supportive of Actually, he always supported his kids in the family, no matter how much how right or how wrong they were. And, you know, that was really important to us as kids growing up, we knew we could go to, and even in my adult life, when I went through relationship problems and other problems in life, my dad was always there. And frankly, often in trouble, he would be the one who would tell people, and it didn’t matter if it was my mom. Or if it was my brothers refers me they were wrong. And I can remember times he would tell my mom that she was wrong, and she’d be furious with him for days, sometimes weeks. And that was just the way it was. He didn’t believe in mixing it. He was fair. actually think in a lot of ways he kept my mom one level keel for many time, my mom still lives 75 whatever very much. My but my dad was a calming influencer. He was also the one who reached out to family and kept in touch with family more than anybody. I think. I’ve picked up that skill in that trait quite a bit. I tend to be in touch with my family. So that’s really important. And my dad was the ultimate Family Guy. I mean, there was no more people is proud of Dennis for boys in his grandson. I can tell you that many many times. And, and he showed us love unconditionally. There was never a catch, never reason. And he always made sure people got to do what was important to them. For example, I can remember taking my mom off in 1975 leading up to New Year’s Eve, by the way knowing I was going to the famous knee which turned out to be the famous New Year’s Eve, Montreal, Canada. In Central Red Army hockey game, my dad saw it as being something different. So I negotiate and negotiate and negotiate with my mother to get me to go, go, I did go to the game. And the rest of that is I got a chance to see history. But that was because my dad saw the value and things like that. My dad was the hockey dad who got up early, or the scout leader, who was involved in scouts and cubs for many, many years. And going back to hockey, you often got up with me to make sure it’s that practice at 6am on a Saturday morning.

05:37

It was probably the last thing that he needed to do after a hard week, work week. But he did it anyway, because that was important. And he never missed practice any never miss games. And he also didn’t mince point, I remember a game where I got two goals. And I said, geez, I had a good game. I got two goals. He looked at me one day and said you could have played better now. He didn’t boy really well, you got lucky. And I probably had. I probably needed to hear that, frankly. But that was my father. Honest, upfront to the point. When I graduated high school, he was there when I graduated college, he was there. With his mom, my grandmother Karen’s came up for it. And you know, he came from a family of multiple boys back, Ian, Ron, and of course, Clifford. And Jeez, I don’t know how my grandparents didn’t lose more hair, sometimes with five of them. And, and then he went and for more and then had a grandson. It’s interesting, the never been any ladies in her family. Directly until I married Joe had all changed. But that’s, you know, funny. It was funny three years ago, Joe and I got married in Niagara falls on August 8. And one of the things that I was thinking throughout the whole week, and the whole ceremony was how much I wish my father had been. He would have been proud. He would have been really proud.

07:21

And

07:23

I wish he hadn’t been no question in my mind. And we actually had a party. We had donation for drinks. And that money were donated to pancreatic research in honor of my father. And he wasn’t there in person. But his spirit was.

07:50

And

07:52

at my father’s funeral, we had prayed designed because you love me. So we need your it’s a classic. And I decided that I needed to have it played at our party. And my mom danced with me, whispered in my ear, you know, are we lost by this? And I said, I know. Because I felt my dad in the room that whole night. And that was really important to me. When he got down in his last days, 10 years ago, we went into the hospital today after Father’s Day. And he really wasn’t feeling well. And a problem with pancreatic cancer is when it starts to shift, it shifts very bad. And at the time, I was starting a business out on my own. And I made a decision to put that on hold. And for the last two and a half to three weeks on my dad’s life. I was at my dad’s hospital bed every day, eight hours a day, seven days a week. And often it took family you know the kick me out of that room. But when I look back at it, I know when I went through problems in my life and health scares and everything else. It was my dad that was there for me. And I certainly felt like I need to be there for my dad. And the day he passed away. I’d actually gone to have lunch in the cafeteria with an old friend because I’d worked at Sunnybrook for many many years. And I wasn’t in the room and my dad passed. I knew when my mom called me the what and how she was crying. He had passed away but the one thing I’ll say is always be grateful. House be grateful for the watts for the time and certainly for him. him in caring above me, my brothers and most of all caring about my mom You sure know how to do a balancing act, usually a better magician than I ever would have been. But that was my father. Just want to share a little insights into him and it makes me who I am and how much I love them. As always Rob Cairns’s founder CEO and Chief Creative amazing ideas that stunning digital marketing, jump on over to our website at stunning digital marketing comm or email me VIP at stunning digital marketing.com Feel free to tweet at me at Rob Karen’s go on our website in our in the footer of our website. It was all the other social media platforms we’re on. Feel free to look us up for hours connect with us on those platforms. If you want to learn more about digital marketing going over to stunning digital marketing comm scroll down to the bottom and sign up for a free marketing newsletter. We’ll be glad to help you. And as always, this podcast is dedicated my late father Bruce Cairns, I miss you and I love you. Keep your feet on the ground. Keep reaching for the stars and make your business succeed.

11:21

Bye for now.