MNHighwayMan RIP

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I have been trying to decide the appropriateness of sharing this, but sadly I have learned forum user MNHighwayMan has died this winter at the age of 27. He had not logged in since February, and while many of us assumed he was simply on hiatus from the board, unfortunately I was led to this sad truth. I will miss his contributions here and the connections we shared.

Mods are welcome to remove the obit if considered too personal.

https://m.legacy.com/obituaries/sctimes/obituary.aspx?n=patrick-stewart-meade&pid=195685889&referrer=0&preview=True

[webny99]

Thank you for sharing this with us, I think that's the right thing to do.
I am taken aback and very saddened to hear that, and will sincerely miss him on the forum.

[Max Rockatansky]

Well that's pretty damn horrible to hear.  I was kind of wondering if something was up considering how frequent he was on the Sign Collecting thread until recently.

[ozarkman417]

This is very unfortunate to hear. I think 27 is far too soon, he had a great life ahead of him.
I do wonder where all those signs will be going. This is actually the second time today someone has told me someone has died.

[Rothman]

What a tragedy.  He will be missed.

[formulanone]

I feel like we've lost a little more of ourselves today, even though he'd departed several weeks ago.

[Henry]

To die from alcohol addiction at any age is indeed tragic, especially when it's 27. That being said, my thoughts and prayers are with the Meade family, as they grieve the loss of their son/brother/grandson/nephew/cousin.

[hbelkins]

There have been more than a few folks who've been on various road forums who are no longer with us.

Randy Hersh, Stanley Cline, Earl Ma (best known as a NASCAR photographer but he also occasionally posted on MTR back in the day), and recently I learned that Larry Sheldon had died.

Any others?

The obituary itself is interesting. It's not often that you see that type of bluntness and openness about the cause of death.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The obituary itself is interesting. It's not often that you see that type of bluntness and openness about the cause of death.

It's become a little more of a trend in younger deaths from preventable/treatable causes like addiction and suicide, in order to draw awareness and reduce the stigma of discussing the issues that lead to them so someone else may be able to come forward and get help before it's too late.

[hbelkins]

Given that alcohol addiction was referenced, and apparently he'd been hospitalized, I wonder if the cause of death wasn't liver issues resulting from alcohol abuse.

[Roadgeekteen]

oh no 

[Max Rockatansky]

Given that alcohol addiction was referenced, and apparently he'd been hospitalized, I wonder if the cause of death wasn't liver issues resulting from alcohol abuse.

Not to speculate but I recently had a Aunt that died from alcohol poisoning, we didn't even know she started drinking again. Either way alcoholism is a total bitch once it gets you and it can almost be impossible to fully recover from.

[seicer]

And you can die from withdraw, which is one of the reasons as to why liquor stores are considered essential businesses.

[bandit957]

There have been more than a few folks who've been on various road forums who are no longer with us.

Randy Hersh, Stanley Cline, Earl Ma (best known as a NASCAR photographer but he also occasionally posted on MTR back in the day), and recently I learned that Larry Sheldon had died.

Any others?

Patrick Humphrey passed away too.

[webny99]

Most of us probably know someone who has suffered from alcoholism at some point or another, so I think this is an important conversation to have. I've known both: some people that have successfully recovered (to date), and others than have ended up passing away because of it. It gets much worse every time it relapses, so if you manage to recover, you have to be incredibly committed to never go back to it again.

Only 27 years old is so young, too. MNHighwayMan was very much a forum regular, but I never even knew or had the slightest indication that he struggled with this, which is why this heartbreaking news is taking a long time for me personally to understand and digest. I find myself reflecting on our past conversations and wondering what I could have done to help if I had known.

[SEWIGuy]

Most of us probably know someone who has suffered from alcoholism at some point or another, so I think this is an important conversation to have. I've known both: some people that have successfully recovered (to date), and others than have ended up passing away because of it. It gets much worse every time it relapses, so if you manage to recover, you have to be incredibly committed to never go back to it again.

Only 27 years old is so young, too. MNHighwayMan was very much a forum regular, but I never even knew or had the slightest indication that he struggled with this, which is why this heartbreaking news is taking a long time for me personally to understand and digest. I find myself reflecting on our past conversations and wondering what I could have done to help if I had known.

Having played around on message board and usenet for many years, nobody really knows anyone on here - unless they have actually met them in person.  Easy to build and maintain whatever persona you want.

[Roadgeekteen]

Most of us probably know someone who has suffered from alcoholism at some point or another, so I think this is an important conversation to have. I've known both: some people that have successfully recovered (to date), and others than have ended up passing away because of it. It gets much worse every time it relapses, so if you manage to recover, you have to be incredibly committed to never go back to it again.

Only 27 years old is so young, too. MNHighwayMan was very much a forum regular, but I never even knew or had the slightest indication that he struggled with this, which is why this heartbreaking news is taking a long time for me personally to understand and digest. I find myself reflecting on our past conversations and wondering what I could have done to help if I had known.

I remember an old thread about the forum outage back in 2017 and MNHighwayMan made the thread, and in the description he said he was drunk. Hits different knowing what I know now.

[J N Winkler]

I have been trying to decide the appropriateness of sharing this, but sadly I have learned forum user MNHighwayMan has died this winter at the age of 27. He had not logged in since February, and while many of us assumed he was simply on hiatus from the board, unfortunately I was led to this sad truth. I will miss his contributions here and the connections we shared.

Thank you for letting us know and for linking to his obituary.  I will miss him too.

There have been more than a few folks who've been on various road forums who are no longer with us.

Randy Hersh, Stanley Cline, Earl Ma (best known as a NASCAR photographer but he also occasionally posted on MTR back in the day), and recently I learned that Larry Sheldon had died.

Larry Sheldon (obituary) is news to me.  His recent Facebook posts did almost prompt me to wonder if he had been given reason to reflect on life.

The obituary itself is interesting. It's not often that you see that type of bluntness and openness about the cause of death.

I think every family handles this a little differently, but in recent death notices I've seen it is more common for a cause of death to be openly specified, not just hinted at through the choice of memorials.  I think this may partly be due to GINA and the Obamacare community rating mandate removing much of the fear of cause of death in relatives' obituaries being used as a basis for insurance underwriting.  When my mother died, her obituary gave her cause of death (colon cancer).

In my own genealogical investigations, I have also discovered there is huge variation among states in how easy it is to obtain death certificates.  In Pennsylvania and Texas, for example, it is a free-for-all and I have downloaded over a dozen death certificates for the members of the Scottish branch of my family who died in those two states.  In Kansas, on the other hand, death certificates are not even searchable through the online genealogy services and the state won't supply one unless relationship within the required degree is proved (you must be at least a cousin).  This translates into state-by-state differences in how easy it is to discover a key part of an ancestor's medical history (cause of death) without the involvement of that ancestor or his or her immediate family.

[qguy]

Thank you so much for sharing this.

[webny99]

I remember an old thread about the forum outage back in 2017 and MNHighwayMan made the thread, and in the description he said he was drunk. Hits different knowing what I know now.

Wow, you're right. I remember that too. It was only a few months after I joined, but it feels like yesterday. So hard to believe it was almost three years ago!

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=20455.msg2233032#msg2233032

[cjk374]

My thoughts & prayers go out to his family for their loss.

[webny99]

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=19530.0

The final comment in that thread is pure gold.

I found this in an old thread, and it got me thinking. Our friend MNHighwayMan had a great and in many ways classic roadgeek sense of humor, and certainly added some "pure gold" himself to the forum over the years. So I got to searching, and found a few more that I thought were worthy of posting here. While sad, I found this to be quite an enjoyable exercise, and I hope it's a suitable way to remember him and his presence on this forum now that he has passed away. If this is considered inappropriate or in any way a violation of guidelines, please let me know.

in certain provinces of China, there are provincial expressways numbered as S01, S02, etc. instead of the usual S1, S2, etc.

I bet there's one or two in the Hundred Acre Wood as well.

Not sure why you decided to be a pedant on this issue however.

Because I wouldn't be an appropriate AARoads forum user if I weren't a pedant.

Now if only there were a treatment for capitalizing every word in a post.

"He just didn't see the roundabout coming."

Damn sneaky bastards. Never know when they'll jump up and overturn a truck or set a van in flight.

Whatever you want as a worker, you have to pay for as a consumer.  How many fifteen-dollar Big Macs are you going to be buying?

If Big Macs become fifteen dollars, there is something far, far more rotten in this country than workers demanding to be paid a living wage.

Just to clarify, I've been happily married for 27 years

So doing it is quite an accomplishment then!

And finally, a nice roadgeek-themed accomplishment of his, posted just a few short months ago.

I have finally done it. I have finally acquired a shield from each of the states MSR 200 passes through!

[tolbs17]

After looking at his profile, today is his birthday! Happy birthday, MNHighwayMan! Cheers!

[Roadgeekteen]

After looking at his profile, today is his birthday! Happy birthday, MNHighwayMan! Cheers!

He would have been 30

[tolbs17]

After looking at his profile, today is his birthday! Happy birthday, MNHighwayMan! Cheers!

He would have been 30

Yeah