Sean and Natasha at her wedding in Dubai, UAE.
Sean had three older cousins (his mother’s sister’s daughters) whom he referred to as his sisters. As much as he terrorized all three of them, they all adored him and vice versa. Sean referred to Candice, the oldest, as the protective big sister. Sonia, the middle one, was the one he could get away with anything. The youngest of the three, Natasha (whom Sean affectionately referred to as ‘Nuts’), was the ‘fun’ one. Here she shares her thoughts about Sean with us.
Sean – my younger brother and friend.
He just saw and accepted people for who they are…no questions asked…except if they were my dates…
I guess like all brothers he was a pain and could be very irritating at times. Most of the time, personally, I thought he was over protective too. At all the parties we attended together, he would always check out who I was with and this annoyed me to no end. He knew it and loved doing it all the same.
Sean believed in living life to the fullest and that’s exactly the way he lived. I don’t think I will get any arguments from anyone on this.
Saying Sean was courageous would be an understatement, because it was Sean himself who gave us the courage to accept his fate and to move on. We used to chat with Sean over Skype all the time. When asked how he was doing he always replied, “Good”. When speaking became a challenge, he did not give up then too. He just gave us the thumbs up to say he was good. In his own way he prepared us to go on with our lives.
Before Sean could go into the operating theatre for his first operation in March 2007, he looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Nuts – life is too short, don’t go wasting it”. That very evening when he was out of the operation theatre I pondered what he said to me. By that night I decided to marry the man I loved. Funnily enough, it took Sean to tell me to do what my heart wanted all along.
On April 1, that same year, I told Sean that I finally told Michael (now my husband) that I would marry him. He just smiled and said: “Nuts, trust you to says these words to a man on April Fools Day”.
Sometime in August or September that year I remember telling Sean that Michael and I would be getting married in November, and just like magic he somehow convinced his family too to attend my wedding in Dubai, just to make my day more special. Looking back now I just realized that the same younger brother did take care of me in his own special way.
It took us all a long time to deal with the fact that Sean has left us. To deal with the pain and loss we would pray a lot (we have the images of the Sacred Heart, the Divine Mercy image etc. at home). One day my older daughter, Lauren, looked at the image of the Divine Mercy and said: “See Mama, Sean is sleeping with Jesus.” Somehow that day I knew Sean had finally found a place to rest. Now every night before we sleep, Lauren prays and, without fail, always says “Good night Jesus, good night Sean – sleep well.”
So we sleep too knowing that Sean is up there with all the other angels taking care of us and having a hearty good laugh at all the stupid things we do. And yes, finally sleeping well.
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