Found this obituary for Kevin McClintic on Facebook. I did not write this."

[hammerhead]

I met Kevin about eight years ago, at Cafe Rozella in White Center. He was carrying a camera with him at the time. A couple of them probably. Kevin was always looking for an interesting shot, but that wasn’t hard to find, because so many things caught his eye: a bit of unusual architecture, a toy left in an unexpected place, a person with an outlandish tattoo . . . He’d snap it all and sort it out later, though he took so many shots I honestly wonder how he could have even reviewed them all. Kevin and I went on several shoots together, and he was FEARLESS. He wouldn’t hesitate to step up to a crime scene and start grilling police about what had gone down there, or shadow some guy who was flipping out on drugs, snapping away with his camera all the while. I’m rather intrepid myself, but there were several times where I put the kibosh on one of his proposed adventures. “I don’t know about you, Kev . . . but MY arse ain’t kick-proof.” (Ha! If Kevin’s somewhere reading this – which I hope he is – I guarantee you he’s laughing. I can just see that ole belly jigglin’ away. :D)

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It’s odd how fearless Kevin was, especially when you think about how his physical condition. He’d already had a heart bypass when I met him, and during the course of our friendship he had a second complicated bypass operation. Intrepid as always, he insisted that heart surgery be filmed and that he be given a copy of the recording. “Wanna watch it with me?” he asked. “I’ve seen it several times, but I could stand to watch it again.”

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“Uh . . . no thanks,” I muttered queasily. “You know I’m not like you. Anything involves blood – anybody’s – I wuss right out.”

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“Yeah. Heh-heh. I knew that about you, David.”

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This spirit infused every aspect of Kevin’s life. He’d also had an ostomy (a procedure to remove the colon – look it up) and while that would’ve caused many a person to get bitter, Kevin used it as an opportunity to help out, going to schools to talk about his condition and mentoring others who’d had a similar procedure. I knew he was in pain much of the time he was with me, but he never showed it, and he never let it slow him down. And he NEVER complained, about his health or anything else. It seemed the man did not have a mean or pessimistic bone in his body.

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A patched-together heart? –Yeah sure.

Some missing pipes? –Ya betcha.

A mean bone? –Nah. Not Kevin.

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Generous to a fault, Kevin let me have dozens of his hard-earned photos to use on my blog and on my Facebook page. He was particularly kind to let me use his photos of the Nickelsville homeless camp, even though he knew I had critical things to say about the camp. “You’ve seen my blog; you know what kind of things I talk about,” I said. “Are you sure you’re ok with this?”

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“Yeah I know that,” he said. “All I ask is that you credit me for the pics and don’t associate your opinions with my name.”

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Fair enough.

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And speaking of generosity, you know, Kevin and Tandy were not well off to start with, and after Kevin last his lost job in a lay-off, the two of them struggled to keep the bills paid. Especially the medical insurance, which I believe amounted to thousands a month. And yet, despite this, and despite his precarious health, Kevin still donated his time and what little “extra” money he had to helping homeless people at Nickelsville!

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As people on this page will testify, Kevin was a man of many interests and many talents. Each of us saw him primarily in the light of one of those interests or talents, but whatever Kevin was involved in, there were no surprises. No matter he was doing, no matter who he was talking with, no matter what else was happening in his life – he was always the same generous, thoughtful, and witty guy. He will surely be missed by everyone who knew him.

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God bless you, Kevin McClintic. You made a difference.

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[Jeannie]

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing this, hammerhead.

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