Entertainment Tonight's Rachel Smith sits down with Gary Sinise for an interview about his late son's 5-year cancer journey.
In January of this year, Gary Sinise and his wife, Moira Harris's son Mac, passed away of cancer at the age of 33. Rachel starts off the interview by asking, "How are all of you holding up?"
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Gary responds, "Well, we're doing okay. It's tough."
McCanna Anthony Sinise, "Mac," was diagnosed with chordoma, a rare form of cancer, in 2018. "This is the kind of slow going tumor...it could've been there since birth," Gary comments.
Mac was having a lot of pain in his tailbone. At first, they assumed this was from when he had jammed the brakes too hard when he was on his bike. He did eventually go in and get it checked out, and that is when they discovered that he had a massive tumor on his sacrum.
Mac had the tumor removed in September 2018, but in May 2019, it unfortunately came back.
“There was a really stormy period, where my dad had a stroke, and my wife had multiple spine surgeries and then she got diagnosed with cancer, and then my son got diagnosed with cancer a couple months later — I was just like, ‘God, what’s going on? What’s happening? Because this is challenging," Gary says.
Gary Sinise shares in the interview that just before they received his son's diagnosis, his wife, Moira Harris, was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She went into remission and has been cancer-free ever since.
As you can imagine, this is a lot for one family to endure. One medical diagnosis is enough, but to endure all of this is quite a challenge. "But, you know, I’ve got to tell you, I’ve seen so many families go through really difficult, difficult things in the military over the years. Having seen so much of that prepared me really well to just say, ‘You can’t let this paralyze you. You have to fight," Gary says about all they are dealing with.
Gary Sinise shared a story about Mac and discussed what was happening with their family on his website. "The amount of response that has come in from that...You know we were just going through it but to reveal it and then to have this massive response of outpouring of love and support. I got to tell you that you know that has helped our family through these initial months of losing our son," he says.
It is a reminder about how far a kind word can go for a hurting family, even if you don't know them personally. What we do and say matters.
Music was a big part of Mac's life. He received his first set of drums when he was nine years old. Gary himself is a musician. In addition to acting, he formed the Lt. Dan Band in 2003 to perform at USO shows, entertain the troops, and raise money for disabled veterans. The band is named after his character in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump.
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Gary Sinise discusses Mac's passion for music in the interview. At some point, Mac couldn't play the drums anymore, so he picked up the harmonica. He also worked on his song "Arctic Circle," which he hadn't finished before. This led to the creation of a whole album, "Resurrection & Revival," which will be released soon.
"He was a pure soul. He had a pure heart," Gary says of his son. "He was a gentle, loving, kind, funny, talented guy. He had a strong faith, and it helped him through, I think."
Toward the end of the interview, Gary starts to tear up as he says, "He was happy at the end of his life. Mac never gave up. He kept fighting, and I'm proud—proud to be his dad."
We continue to pray for Gary and his family during this time. Losing a child is a heartbreaking thing to have to go through. However, we know God is there to walk beside Mac's family and help them through this time.
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"The LORD is near to them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit." - Psalms 34:18
h/t: Movieguide
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