Hello again all. We wanted to give you some more info. about Mac and a few more pictures. It was a week ago today that we lost the great Mac Tonnies. He passed peacefully though in his sleep sunday evening due to a problem with his heart. Mac had told us once that many years ago he had some irregular heart beats. Tests had been done then but nothing was found; obviously there was a problem! Also, Mac did not believe in taking up land for burials so his body will be cremated and the ashes spread at Kauffman garden here in Kansas City. It is a beautiful garden located near the art museum and the fact that there is a cat that lives there makes it a perfect spot for Mac. He loved his cats and that was almost always a topic that we talked about. When I got my 2 new cats this year I think he was just as excited about it as I was. When Bryan and I would go to visit the kitties( before we could bring them home) he would tweet to us to take photos.
We put together a collage yesterday to hang at the coffeeshop where we would all hang out.We have been there every night since finding out about Mac sharing stories and just being a comfort to each other. I took these next few photos last night. Dave shared some drawings with us and his business cards that Mac drew for him. The little crop circle figures were part of Macs collection that his mom graciously let us pick a momento from. His parents definitely want to see Mac's most recent book published so rest assured that it will be taken care of. There have been some great remembrances of Mac but I would like to point you to Chris's blog post here because I really think it describes Mac well.
Thank you for all the comments left here. It was most definitely an honor to have known Mac, I will miss his witty comments on my blog and we are all going to miss that great smile of his at the coffee shop! I was teasing the other guys in the group last night that one of them is going to have to start reading up on Mac's interests to keep that element in our conversations. I would like to try and post on this blog the types of artists that he posted on his. He introduced me to several folks I was not aware of. Our last conversation the night before he passed was about art. I had picked up the latest issues of Hi Fructose and American Craft before hitting the coffee shop and we were just sifting through the magazines oohing and ahhing over all the great stuff.
6 comments:
Awesome Post! Thanks, and again, I know there is an accute/poignant loss patronizing your favorite coffee and it choking me up thinking about you guys.
good, Ill be back!
In our blogworld now You represent the Life
"I’ve never married. Gaile, the woman closest to me, had left me for the subterranean chic of Mars thirty years ago. We had exchanged mail for a while: tellingly formal hypertext updates which we examined with the patience of historians unearthing ancient and unsuspected texts. Then the mail had ceased altogether and I had felt my estrangement manifest as a chill in my bones. Something terminal and sad had crossed the gulf of interplanetary space, borne on wings of thought."
maby it was his loneliness that made it actractive?
"The sun doesn’t scare them, as it does me, no matter how deeply I think I grasp the cruel equation of my own mortality. I’ll die anyway, regardless of the sun’s inflation. I wouldn’t necessarily have to—a month’s nanotherapy would add another century or so to my lifespan.." This is Macs Text 2007
Thank you for this wonderful tribute. I am privileged to have known and corresponded with Mac for many years and in fact gave him the saucer dioramas in your post. Tonight is a full moon here in Toronto and I find myself wishing Mac could look up and see it...he was an original and a truly nice man.
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