Have Your Prostate Checked Regularly!

Life works in mysterious ways. I had just sat down, approximately 30 minutes ago, to rough out this blog entry, and then carry on with some other work. I tend to do that. I’ll rough out an entry, an idea, and then let it percolate in the recesses of my mind as I work on other things. Then, when I return to complete the writing, I find the words flow much easier.

The trouble was, this evening, I wasn’t sure what I would write about. The day’s events did not bring a blog topic to mind.

And then the phone rang. My father was calling. My former hockey coach, a man by the name of Bruce Butterworth, had died today. He had fought a long battle with prostate cancer.

Bruce coached our team a few different times as we grew from four year olds that could barely skate, up into our teens. Our most memorable year was the 1982-83 campaign. That was the year we won our only provincial championship. We were in our mid-teens. Two years earlier we had made it to the finals, and were up three games to none, and then lost the next four. So the victory in 1983 was very sweet.

Bruce used to liken me to the Big ‘M’, Frank Mahovlich. Clearly he was trying to inspire me to greater feats, as my typical play certainly didn’t warrant such a prestigious moniker. But, like the Big M, I was a fairly reliable winger, playing my position, trudging up and down that right side of the rink doing the best that I could. Bruce understood that. He didn’t ask for perfection, just effort.

I knew Bruce was fading. He spent the final years of his life telling anyone and everyone that would listen to get regular prostate exams. He made it his final mission in life, to hopefully save the life of another.

SO, GET A PROSTATE EXAM ANNUALLY!

I called him, out of the blue, one Saturday in January. We hadn’t spoken much since 1983. I just knew I had to call and thank him for all he did for us. We had a good chat. He’s an … Isn’t that funny. I typed “He’s an” instead of “He was an.”

Bruce was an avid golfer. Fanatical really. He competed and I believe was successful at the provincial amateur level. So when I told him I was now in the golf business, we had a lot to talk about. He wanted to know all about the business. He wrote down some website addresses, and planned to have a look. I never did get back to him, to hear what he thought of what we were doing.

That final game of the 1983 championship series, we had three skaters on the bench. All year we’d played with five or six on the bench. Basically we had two full lines. But, through injuries and a suspension, we played that final game with just three of us on the bench. The other team had a full bench. And yet, we won.

We won that game, and the series, because our coach convinced us that we could win, and we deserved to win. For that, we’re all eternally grateful.