About Lugnut -- Patrick Malone

Hi everybody, hi Barb, hi Pat. I was surprised at how upset I was at hearing this news. Even more surprising looking at my background. I am a health care provider specializing in Lou Gehrigs Disease. All of my patients are my friends. I have seen many friends pass away. But I miss Lugnut. I never met him and regret that I didn't. But we have chatted on the phone a few times over the past year or so. Seemed like I was talking to an old lifelong buddy from the start. So what has had me so troubled. I was afraid of loosing something more than a friend.

I think that what attracted so many people to this post, that attracted so many people to Pat is that in many ways we all have some Lugnut in us, and Pat gave us the opportunitty to live out our inner "Lugnuts". He allowed us the opportunity to share openlly in community and shared love of something that we all in our way find beautiful and dear, music. Life. Joy.

With Pat, either in e-mails or over the phone, I got to be a little more honest, open, happy, joyfull, soft, humble. These are parts of me that Pat helped bring out and I do not want to let go of these things.

I still want to let my inner "Lugnut" run free.

But I felt kind of on my own these past few days.

Then I woke up this morning, went for a walk. I said a warm good morning to everyone I possibly could, while all the while picturing Lugnut in the cockpit of that plane. I came home, listened to some music, and got back on the horse. I sure want to continue with this community that Pat has helped fuel.

With that is mind I would like to sponsor one nights lodging for the "scholarship" for a young person to attend the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. I am sure others will be able to help with other needs. I want to honor my friend. I want to thank him and remember him. I want to show thanks to Barb for sharing her Lugnut. But most of all I want to continue what Mr. Lugnut has started.

dav

...haven't posted a while here but kept on watching and reading with sorrow.

deep condolences to mrs Pat Malone

Pat will always be with us!

Mark

There has been talk about a memorial to our beloved Lugnut. The idea that Davt mentioned has been discussed before. I don't know if anyone is interested in this, but it would be nice to see something set up to maintain the presence or memory of Pat Malone here on AudiogoN.

If people are interested in doing this, or have other suggestions, perhaps another thread could be started to get the ball rolling. Any ideas Paul, or others who have been so faithful in posting and caring for Pat?

I first stumbled across this thread back in early May, and read through it for a couple of days before posting on May 5th.
Although I haven't posted much since then, I have continued to read it with a sense of joy, and dread, at the same time.
I know that you all helped Patrick a lot as he continued to fight this awful disease, in a very Public Forum, with grace, humour and courage.
However, he also helped all of us who have not had the horrifying experience of having to watch a loved one die slowly like that. It will help us deal with that awful reality should we ever be confronted with it personally. This thread will exist here for a long time, and can be used as an inspirational tool to convince similarly afflicted people and their loved ones that life should be lived to its fullest until your time runs out.

Barb, you have my sympathies for the loss of Patrick. Things will be busy around you for a while I expect. But, if you ever feel lonely, you know now that some support, friends and advice are as close as your computer keyboard.

I have a few comments that I would like to discuss after reading Davt’s post.

First off, keeping Pat alive in our souls is keeping the Lugnut in each of us active in our lives. Dav, you did this on your walk, and you came home alive. What this experience has taught us is to be honest, open and loving of strangers. These strangers become friends as soon as we extend our hand to them,

We have all shared an experience here, and it has been good. The experience appears to outsiders as death, this is what we see in the obituary, but we have learned this experience is in actuality life. Our time on earth is ours to share in any way we wish, this group at Audiogon have learned to share life as love and honesty. From this experience we hopefully have changed our perspective. That is the Lugnut legacy, and for me what I carry away from this and some other experiences I’ve had in my life is we are in this together, and every one of us needs the love of others to have the most fulfilling experience possible. Imagine how sad and lonely Pat’s death would have been without this community. Now put yourself in Pat’s place, will you be alone or will you have love surrounding you at your passing?

We need each other, not just when we a sick, but every day. Pat had wished for this thread to continue because he was the benefactor of the love shared. But really, weren’t we all the benefactors? My life was forever altered when I had my heart attack, and I have found the community expressed here ar Audiogon in my life outside Audiogon. I have been able to share my lessons with many people, I even wrote a book (not published… yet) to help others learn. I try and live Lugnut’s lessons with every person I meet. My comment is to keep Pat alive we must expand the affected group beyond just Audiogon. If we do not, then the lesson will slowly fade into history, and nothing we have learned will have been carried forward into our futures. This is not acceptable in my view.

We are the luckiest people ever, we were allowed to share the hardest part of life and we grew. Pat will live as he lived today on Dav’s walk. If we want to memorialize Pat and Barb’s gift to us than all we need to do is love everyone you meet. Share random acts of kindness everyday. (I can not express how powerful random acts of kindness are.) Love will spawn love in the same fashion hate spawns hate. But love trumps hate every time, hate will fail to exist if we all love one another. We were created to share this experience together and to help one another everyday. Help is not one day or one thread at an audio web site. Help is loving everyone we meet, and extend our souls to another.

For the moment that is enough from me. I have set-up my Empire turntable from 1972 with the AI preamp Pat gave to me, and yes Neil Young (‘70’s style) will play tomorrow afternoon, despite a frozen cartridge that sounds like $#&^.

God bless you all, I have grown to love so many of you through this incredible thread.

I love you Pat.