Scott's memorial thoughts
Wynn was well known for his humor, wit, youthful and sometimes excessive enthusiasm. Wynn was unique - I can quite honestly say I never met anyone who reminds me of him. He liked to stick out. Wynn was faithful - he snuggled with his Paddington bear every night of his life. Not many kids at Rice University brought their teddy bears but Wynn wasn't going to let conventional thinking stop him.
I have a VW camper bus and have traveled a lot in it. Wynn always wanted more opportunities to travel. In the summer of 2001 I emailed him that my wife and I would be driving up to Maine and would be gone for a month. In typical Wynn fashion I received an exuberant email back that, yes, he would love to come along, would like to see some things along the way especially New York which he hadn't been to. Before I could reply about five minutes later I got another email from him indicating that he had already secured airfare for his return trip from New York. We took our time and saw many things along the way. After spending a week in the VW we were ready to dump him off at the corner of 57th and Lexington, Paddington under one arm, pillow and bag under the other. But by the time we got to Maine we were missing him a little.
Before my daughter was born Wynn talked on and on about wanting to spend lots of time babysitting and came up with all these things they might do together and nicknames they could call each other. Honestly all of this made us nervous. But when Lyda Rose was born Wynn was just great with her - they were like two little goofy kids that really understood each other. He was quite proud of his new title as "Crazy Uncle Wynn" and we felt badly for even doubting his ability in that role.
Wynn survived many struggles in his life. Wynn was hit by a car at age 7. He had 20 something operations on his leg and spent a lot of his childhood on crutches. But Wynn turned his disability into asset. He had unusual movement in that one leg and could raise it in class like most people would raise their arm. Anything to get attention. He also talked about his leg and experiences so much that it broke people's boundaries with dealing with disabilities and he made his schoolmates genuinely interested. In the early 90's he come out to me via email before coming out to everyone else which is pretty high on my list as one of the most difficult things anyone could do. Wynn constantly struggled with money. He always wanted to do was in his heart was into and that wasn't always compatible with a job. Some people have buttons that say "I survived Mary Gras, or Rush Week" but Wynn had a "I survived damn near everything" button which he had earned.
But three years ago Wynn had an epiphany. Wynn told me about all the terrible nurses he had put up with in his many times in hospitals. One time a nurse talked back to him and wouldn't help him in a timely fashion. When he called 911 the operator was surprised to hear that he was calling from a hospital bed but the paramedics did make it faster than the nurse did and he made his statement. Wynn told me about one nurse that really went out of her way to help him and it made his whole experience in the hospital great. It occurred to him that nurses were much more powerful than doctors or anyone else in the hospital when it came to providing a good experience to the patient in a difficult time. So Wynn launched headfirst into a 3 year nursing program and graduated magna cum laude two months ago. He completed his exam and officially became a registered nurse a just few weeks ago. His stated Career Goal on his resume read "to bring my experience as a patient to bear on the nursing profession, in order to bring uncompromising compassion and humanity to every patient's experience, through research, communication, political action, and direct patient care." Because of his extraverted nature and experience as a patient we all thought he would be a fantastic nurse. It seemed he had found his calling.
For those of you who don't know, Wynn's death appears, at this point, to be an odd, accidental one. Wynn had lots of plans. Wynn was on the cusp of a brand new chapter in his life that would have really been good and I'm sorry I won't be able to share that with him.
I am damn proud of my big brother and I'm not sure what I'll do without him.
Scott Martin
I have a VW camper bus and have traveled a lot in it. Wynn always wanted more opportunities to travel. In the summer of 2001 I emailed him that my wife and I would be driving up to Maine and would be gone for a month. In typical Wynn fashion I received an exuberant email back that, yes, he would love to come along, would like to see some things along the way especially New York which he hadn't been to. Before I could reply about five minutes later I got another email from him indicating that he had already secured airfare for his return trip from New York. We took our time and saw many things along the way. After spending a week in the VW we were ready to dump him off at the corner of 57th and Lexington, Paddington under one arm, pillow and bag under the other. But by the time we got to Maine we were missing him a little.
Before my daughter was born Wynn talked on and on about wanting to spend lots of time babysitting and came up with all these things they might do together and nicknames they could call each other. Honestly all of this made us nervous. But when Lyda Rose was born Wynn was just great with her - they were like two little goofy kids that really understood each other. He was quite proud of his new title as "Crazy Uncle Wynn" and we felt badly for even doubting his ability in that role.
Wynn survived many struggles in his life. Wynn was hit by a car at age 7. He had 20 something operations on his leg and spent a lot of his childhood on crutches. But Wynn turned his disability into asset. He had unusual movement in that one leg and could raise it in class like most people would raise their arm. Anything to get attention. He also talked about his leg and experiences so much that it broke people's boundaries with dealing with disabilities and he made his schoolmates genuinely interested. In the early 90's he come out to me via email before coming out to everyone else which is pretty high on my list as one of the most difficult things anyone could do. Wynn constantly struggled with money. He always wanted to do was in his heart was into and that wasn't always compatible with a job. Some people have buttons that say "I survived Mary Gras, or Rush Week" but Wynn had a "I survived damn near everything" button which he had earned.
But three years ago Wynn had an epiphany. Wynn told me about all the terrible nurses he had put up with in his many times in hospitals. One time a nurse talked back to him and wouldn't help him in a timely fashion. When he called 911 the operator was surprised to hear that he was calling from a hospital bed but the paramedics did make it faster than the nurse did and he made his statement. Wynn told me about one nurse that really went out of her way to help him and it made his whole experience in the hospital great. It occurred to him that nurses were much more powerful than doctors or anyone else in the hospital when it came to providing a good experience to the patient in a difficult time. So Wynn launched headfirst into a 3 year nursing program and graduated magna cum laude two months ago. He completed his exam and officially became a registered nurse a just few weeks ago. His stated Career Goal on his resume read "to bring my experience as a patient to bear on the nursing profession, in order to bring uncompromising compassion and humanity to every patient's experience, through research, communication, political action, and direct patient care." Because of his extraverted nature and experience as a patient we all thought he would be a fantastic nurse. It seemed he had found his calling.
For those of you who don't know, Wynn's death appears, at this point, to be an odd, accidental one. Wynn had lots of plans. Wynn was on the cusp of a brand new chapter in his life that would have really been good and I'm sorry I won't be able to share that with him.
I am damn proud of my big brother and I'm not sure what I'll do without him.
Scott Martin
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