I guess we can call this trackable "Scottie the Zombie". Scott is my seconf to oldest brother, who passed away on 06/19/2023 do to cancer. Like me, he was born in Rochester, NY, moved to Rockville, MD when we were children, and that's where we grew up.
Scott was always a little crazy. Some would say weird. Some even found him to be scary, but he always had a big heart and would help anyone out at any time. Scott joined the Navy, I the army, and we went our seperate ways. Scott got married in Rockville, but ended up moving back to Rochester, NY. From Rochester, he moved to Ohio. It took a while but he made his way back to the Maryland area in 2003, where he moved in with my sister in Gaithersburg.
In 2005, Scott moved in with Kim and I, here in Germantown. Scott lived with us til 2015, when he moved back to Rochester, NY. In 2017, Scott moved to Hilton Head Island, to live with our sister Shelley for the second time. Scott's life was cut short while living in Hilton Head, and he will definitely be missed.
Although Scott was 20 months older than me, we were both in the same grade, since the first grade, which made us closer as brothers, as we saw each other a lot more than our other brothers and sisters. A lot of great, fun times growing up with Scott, and along the way we did have our troubles with the law. I graduated High School at the age of 16, and what is a 16 year old going to do once he graduates? Scott was older and joined the Navy, and I missed him dearly once he was gone.
I went six years without seeing Scott, but we did exchange a lot of letters. No computers, phones, internet back in those days, but there was always a penicl, paper, and envelope and a stamp. I transfered from West Germany, that's what it was back then, to Ft. Meade, MD. and Scott and I was able to hook up once again. It didn't last long as he left for Rochester, and we would see each other only about once a year until 2003, when Scott moved back to Maryland.
The eight years that Scott lived with us in Germantown was a great time. A lot of weekend road trips, visiting places in that book he had, "Weird Maryland". In fact, Scott was with me when we both made our very first find, trying this new game called geocaching. Once we found our first geocache, we were both hooked. As time went on, Scott didn't enjoy it as much as I did, because he would hate it whenever we couldn't find a geocache. Scott finally gave up on geocaching just after he had 100 finds. Actually, Scott gave up logging them as finds, as he would still go out with me, and make finds.
It was February 28, 2023, when we got the bad news of Scott having stage 4 cancer, and maybe having just six months left to live. March 18, 2023, Kim and I was on our way to visit Scott on Tybee Island, GA. When we called Scott to tell him we were on our way, he told me to take my time, find some geocaches along the way, and once there, we'd go and find some together. All of this happened, and it was great seeing him before he started having a lot of pain. Scott actually fell down a flight of stairs, and was air lifted to a hospital in Savanah, GA. It was there, and after plenty of test and scans, they found out he had a minor stroke, and that he had tumors on his lung and brain. The minor stroke caused him to be paralyzed on his left side, which cause him to be in a wheel chair, but we still pushed him around the island in the wheel chair and got some finds.
When it came time for Scott to make decisions as to what he wanted done when the time came. he said he wanted to be creamated, and all of his brothers and sisters to have his ashes. I remember the phone call from Scott, telling me to turn him into a travel bug, and for me to take him on my geocaching adventures and on all of my vacations.
Love you Scott, and miss you alot. You were with me for my very first find, and now you can be with me until my last find. Help keep me safe in my travels, whether it be by foot, bike, automobile, boat or plane. Every time I get a DNF, I'll think of you and how much you hated that, and would say geocaching was stupid. You were into ghost and zombie's, so this zombie is just for you.
Love you brother, and if geocaching doesn't exist in heaven, I expect you to get it started, so if I do make it there, I can continue on with this game. If I end up in hell, no worries brother, I'll be busy with Timmy raising hell in hell.