This piece was first published on Flickr and Facebook where I also invited folks to read the posts on the website of The Harvest Golf Course where he had been Director of Instruction since 2013 (link below):
https://harvestgolf.com/golf/practice-facility-academy#SeanRichardson

We like to say that children are supposed to outlive their parents. In the case of my son Sean, aged 52 years and 272 days, the ‘normal’ course of life events didn’t happen. The cancer he had been battling since 2016 took him from us on April 18, 2021, what would have been my dad’s 115th birthday.

Our hearts are broken. Sean is no longer with us. We will never again see his impish smile, chuckle at his witty quips, sardonic comments about politics and politicians, or listen to his goofy laugh, which only a handful of his closest friends and family probably got to relish. We will no longer imbibe his delightful instruction and good-natured ribbing, or ponder his philosophizing. 

Most folks knew only his gentle, thoughtful, deeply caring and helpful side. By nature, a peacemaker rather than a fighter, when provoked (a very rare occurrence), however, he’d let his opponent know in no uncertain terms. And that foe would have to think about why and whether ever to do THAT again! He did all he could to beat the disease, but in the end, it took him from us.

Hundreds of people who counted him a friend, and he greatly valued those acquaintances. He was attached profoundly to a handful of confidants, most dating back to his schooldays in 100 Mile House, who, along with his family, knew him in both  joyful and stressful times. His life was never as simple as some may have thought, especially if you met him only in his maturity after he married Tracy Hansford. The mature Sean was a treasure to the whole community, to those who knew him intimately as well as those who called him a teammate, colleague, coach, fellow fisherman or hunter or conservationist, or public speaker (Here he is at the BC Legislature speaking on behalf of hunting and wildlife conservation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFLPJ4dk6Ps (11 minutes 35 seconds). 

He was a natural leader and diplomat.
Here is a post was delivered to him in booklet form only days before he died.
It details the response of participants in a leadership conference January 28, 2020, where he acted as a leadership consultant to a group of 14 leaders from the international PCL Construction company. It’s worth a read, I think.
https://leadershare.ca/encourage-the-heart-blog

For his closest friends and family, his death is devastating. We depended upon him so much for seeing the best in us, bringing us together, leading by example in celebrating life, pushing past obstacles, over hurdles, around paradoxes, and onto a better future. For us who knew what an authentic gem of a human being he truly was, his death is nearly unbearable. 

And yet the mature Sean showed us that the ‘unbearable’ is probably ‘manageable’ — that giving up is simply unacceptable. “If something needs to be put aside in order to carry on, then do it,” he’d have said. “Don’t bang your head against a wall, or wail, complain, lash out, or indulge in self-destruction. Find a way to carry on, one step at a time, to find the positive even when the world is roiling with apparent insanity. Calm down, breathe, weigh your options, make the best choice you can in the moment you occupy.” 

That’s how he lived, and how he hoped those he loved would live as well. “You don’t have to agree with me,” he’d have said, “but you have to keep your wits about you. Be the best you can be as much as you’re capable of being.”

There was another section providing more information about Sean’s life that I removed after receiving criticism that it was too personal. I am still deliberating about whether or not to put it back up. I have no doubt that Sean would have approved it.

• *Musings