Last Friday, January 4th, dawned in a not too unusual way with my son Fred having made breakfast for Sondra and me. Fred was a graduate Chef and loved to be at work in our kitchen. He did complain of stomach discomfort and decided to stay home from physical therapy that day. Later Fred plated our supper with incident and we all enjoyed our meal. Fred went down to his area to listen to some Eagles' music but shortly came up to the garage to get something. On his return to the cellar he must have experienced a massive heart attack and fell most of the way down the cellar steps. He in fact broke 3 ribs and stopped breathing. I called 911 and was quickly tutored in CPR and I administered mouth to mouth resuscitation as well as chest compression. Fred stopped breathing well for about 15 minutes until the ambulance crew got here. It took them another 15 min. or so to get his heart started. In short Fred was brain dead on route to the hospital. This fact was later confirmed by brain scans. After having met with the Organ Donor people we decided to allow there harvesting team to use as much as possible or his body and organs. They told us that as few as 150 and as many as 250 items may be used by others.
Fred enjoyed Models as a younger lad. He didn't care much for my Combat stuff at that time but really loved HLG and rubber power smaller planes.
It's difficult to see our parents and other older folks in the family fade and pass but it is absolutely devastating to loose a child no matter what the age, Fred was 41, or status. At times it is difficult to love some of us due to one thing or another but we all must play through the hard time and keep on being loving Dad's and Mom's and friends. Some times tough love is what we must do but we must all keep on loving all of us. I am most grateful for all the kind thoughts, words and call I have received from the modeling world.
Sincerely, Phil Spillman
Topic: Heavy Heart Report (Read 3719 times)