Gary Sinise loses son Mac

 

Not sure how we missed noting this, but Gary Sinise lost his son McCanna “Mac” Anthony Sinise (33) to cancer on January 5 this year. Gary, of course, is the Oscar-nominated actor (and Honorary Marine) who is arguably the military’s best Hollywood friend.

When Gary shared news of Mac’s death, he also revealed that his son was diagnosed with Chordoma in 2018, the same year his wife, Moira Sinise, discovered she had breast cancer.

That fight began in 2018 when Mac’s tailbone pain became too much to bear.

“He was a having a lot of pain in his tail bone. At one point years ago he kind of slammed on the breaks (sic) too hard on a bike and he jammed his tailbone, and we thought it had something to do with that,” Gary said. “He’d say, ‘I’m having a lot of pain here.’ And then the pain got too much for him and I was like, ‘What is going on here?'”

“There was a really stormy period where my dad had a stroke, and then my wife had multiple spine surgeries, and then she got diagnosed with cancer, and then my son got diagnosed with cancer a couple of months later,” he recalled. “It was just like, ‘God, what’s going on? What’s happening? This is challenging.'”

One recalls Job. That’s a bunch on anyone’s plate.

While 70 percent of the time a tumor of that kind is able to be removed and the cancer is cured, 30 percent of the time it grows back, which is what happened to Mac. When, after Mac’s September 2018 surgery, the cancer returned in May 2019, Mac was determined to continue his work with his dad’s foundation, which he had been contributing to since his childhood.

“He grew up around it. He’s an excellent drummer, started playing with my band, I would take him to military bases, he would play with us,” Gary said. “… He admired what I was doing and cares about our veterans and all of that. Finally I roped him into coming to work for the foundation back in 2017. He started and he loved it.”

“In early 2020, Mac was going to have to have another surgery on his spine, because there were more tumors growing on his spine. And then he had another surgery in June,” Gary said. “So in 2020, I just pulled back and put all my attention, all my focus on trying to help him, while at the same time still trying to continue with the mission of the Gary Sinise Foundation.”

Gary reflected on how despite trying multiple drugs and treatment protocols, nothing worked – and then Mac became paralyzed.

Eventually, Mac became paralyzed from the chest down, which was a “blessing” in some ways, Gary said.

“It was very painful and all of a sudden he couldn’t feel anything from the chest down, so that pain that he was feeling before was gone now, but he couldn’t walk,” Gary said. “It’s just the nature of this awful cancer. He was fighting and I wasn’t going to stop fighting for him. I never wanted to think that we were going to lose the battle even though you know that you’re fighting uphill all the way.”

As his health deteriorated, Mac decided to return to one of his first loves — music. He taught himself how to play the harmonica at the suggestion of his mom, and was able complete his album, Mac Sinise: Resurrection and Revival, before he died.

Gary recruited musicians from his band and Mac enlisted the help of a college buddy for the project.

“He achieved it. He got it all recorded. Him and his buddy Oliver worked so well together and created this beautiful music,” Gary said. “The album, it’s being pressed right now. It’s in presale at the Gary Sinise Foundation right now… As soon as it’s pressed we’ll start releasing it. Eventually all of his music will be on the digital platforms and everything.”

The album was completed in the final week of Mac’s life.

Gary goes on to talk about how his service to others helps him cope with Mac’s death.

Throughout this challenging time with Mac, I was still trying to go out there and play concerts or visit the troops, do the work of the Gary Sinise Foundation. All that service work, that lifts you up. That helps you through your own stuff… It’s still going to help me through,” he said. “All that service work is going to help me through our own family challenges and our loss and our missing and the pain and the sorrow… I’ll keep doing that as long as I can.”  ET Online

There is a man who puts service to others first – good advice for all of us. Our deepest sympathies – as the saying goes, no man should have to bury his children – but those in military families tend to see more of that than those who don’t serve, and it’s a pity that someone we admire so much gets struck.

Service groups, especially hospice-related, are ALWAYS looking for vet volunteers to visit other vets, visit and help out home- or bed-bound vets. I know some of the VSO’s get tarred by the actions of a few wayward members, but their core mission is something we can all get behind, and we should.

Read the article. Listen to the interview.

H/t to my wife of 46 years for bringing this to my attention.

Category: Hidden Valor, Hollywood