Bear McGrath Memorial Fund

The words to write this were difficult to find because Bear was a wonderful person, husband to Marie, father of 5 beautiful girls, son to Jeff & Sherry, brother to Jaime, Chew, Nick, Ben, & Pat, and friend to SO many. His girls, Caity, Riley, Raegan, Ryann, & Ravyn, were lucky to have a girl dad like Bear to set the bar high in the time he had with them. He was only 38 and had so much more life to live and he will be truly missed by so many who knew him. He spent some time in the hospital, had open heart surgery, and was the provider for his family so this will hopefully help them with the medical bills and provide help for them to get through such a tough time just a little bit easier. Thank you in advance for any thoughts, prayers, or help you’ve given to his family.

The following was written by Bear’s beautiful wife;

Yesterday morning my beautiful, amazing husband took his last breath. He was surrounded by some of our family, all holding onto him, praying over him, and telling him how much we love and adore him.

For those of you who didn’t know, Bear had been sick for months. (Things started to get really bad in February) We were in and out of doctors and ER etc. and they couldn’t figure out what was causing his sickness. Finally on May 20th, a trip to the ER discovered he had just suffered 3 strokes. More tests confirmed he had a heart infection on his valve and blood infection. (Sepsis) They think the initial cause of the infection developed somewhere in his GI. He would need open heart surgery to replace the valve. They couldn’t perform the surgery right away because of his strokes being new. They needed to wait 4-6 weeks for those to heal. We stayed in the hospital getting antibiotics and just waiting. But he began to get worse. Because the infection was on his valve it would like spray off as it pumped and land on other things. His spleen, kidneys, and stomach were all affected. He had terrible pneumonia. He suffered another stroke in the hospital and the infection went to another valve as well. He was in excruciating pain. He was then transferred to UAB in Birmingham where they said he needed to have the surgery ASAP and performed it the next day. Surgery went great, the doctor said he could tell he had been sick for a very long time.

Bear was recovering slowly but surely. The doctors had him set to come home Thursday. Wednesday night he complained of a headache and that all the sudden turned into a stroke/very large brain bleed. By the time he was getting a CT he was unresponsive and went into a coma. Tests came back that the bleed was too big, damage was too great, and that there was nothing that they could do. Bear would never wake up again. Bear made me promise him before he went into surgery, that no matter what, I “wouldn’t let him be a vegetable.” So family came, we said our goodbyes, and I kept my promise. He’s no longer in pain, and for that I’m thankful.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way and now I’m lost. I’ve never felt pain like this and I’m completely broken. He was the best husband, daddy and provider. He was the best friend, brother and son. My babies loved their daddy more than anything and my heart will break everyday for them. He was my very best friend. He was my everything. Our love was like no other. The kind of thing you see in movies. We made it through so many obstacles and only came out stronger. Truly, a once in a lifetime love. Everything I did involved him and I have no idea how to proceed without him here. He was the best thing that ever happened to me. And I thank God for every single second that I got to spend with him. I know somehow, someway we will get through this. Our families are big and supportive and we will take it minute by minute. He was so very loved and will be missed more than I can ever explain.

I love you, my baby Bear. Forever and always.