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| The Entertainment Review |
| By: Steve McKee Publisher: Da Capo Press |
teenager. McKee’s book, “My Father’s Heart: A Son’s Journey,” walks readers through his collection of memories
and his current thoughts about how to deal with the looming issue of heart health.
John McKee was a typical hard working father of his times, times when men were men and didn’t go around talking
about their physical ailments and mental torments to friends and family. Afflicted by a major heart attack, he didn't do
anything that might have helped prevent another, smoking as much as before, pushing himself just as hard, and
tying himself to a stressful job he didn't really like. Six years later he was dead.
His sixteen year old son tried his best to deal with the whirlwind of activity that death presents to the family and to
understand his own right to grieve. He marveled at his mother's strength, now that she had to learn to be a widow
instead of a wife. The next Christmas, his mother made sure there was a tree in the house, taking on all of the roles
that McKee’s father had taken care of before. She would survive and take on both parenting roles.
Putting together this memoir helped Steve organize his thoughts about his own medical history, as a son of a man
who died of a heart attack who was the son of a man who died of a heart attack.
The strong, proud, laboring men before him were all affected by heart disease. McKee researches not just his
father's history but his own. He combines his childhood memories with cold, hard facts about heart disease and
describes how he decided not to repeat his father's mistakes. He realizes that, in a sorrowful way, his father was
"Everyman for his generation," from his 3 pack a day cigarette habit, to his breakfast eggs, to his refusal to tell
anyone when he was in pain. All so typical of that generation that went to war and soldiered on afterwards without a
single complaint.
Always athletic, Steve McKee does not smoke. He is willing to get all reasonable testing done when needed. He is
willing to embrace a "good" diet that he can stick to instead of a "great" one that he will fail at. He decided it is
important to jog and he will serve as a gatekeeper for others, hearing their stories: "The man whose father died while
putting the toys together for his nine children on Christmas Eve," the man in his thirties who after his father's passing,
had to learn to be the head of the household - "I sit at the head of the table. I carve the turkey."
This intricate and emotional book offers both praise and warning. It is both a journey into the past and a hard look at
the future, at issues of mortality and life management. It can serve as a useful guide to others who may have
inherited heart disease and who struggle to comprehend what that means for them.
and his current thoughts about how to deal with the looming issue of heart health.
John McKee was a typical hard working father of his times, times when men were men and didn’t go around talking
about their physical ailments and mental torments to friends and family. Afflicted by a major heart attack, he didn't do
anything that might have helped prevent another, smoking as much as before, pushing himself just as hard, and
tying himself to a stressful job he didn't really like. Six years later he was dead.
His sixteen year old son tried his best to deal with the whirlwind of activity that death presents to the family and to
understand his own right to grieve. He marveled at his mother's strength, now that she had to learn to be a widow
instead of a wife. The next Christmas, his mother made sure there was a tree in the house, taking on all of the roles
that McKee’s father had taken care of before. She would survive and take on both parenting roles.
Putting together this memoir helped Steve organize his thoughts about his own medical history, as a son of a man
who died of a heart attack who was the son of a man who died of a heart attack.
The strong, proud, laboring men before him were all affected by heart disease. McKee researches not just his
father's history but his own. He combines his childhood memories with cold, hard facts about heart disease and
describes how he decided not to repeat his father's mistakes. He realizes that, in a sorrowful way, his father was
"Everyman for his generation," from his 3 pack a day cigarette habit, to his breakfast eggs, to his refusal to tell
anyone when he was in pain. All so typical of that generation that went to war and soldiered on afterwards without a
single complaint.
Always athletic, Steve McKee does not smoke. He is willing to get all reasonable testing done when needed. He is
willing to embrace a "good" diet that he can stick to instead of a "great" one that he will fail at. He decided it is
important to jog and he will serve as a gatekeeper for others, hearing their stories: "The man whose father died while
putting the toys together for his nine children on Christmas Eve," the man in his thirties who after his father's passing,
had to learn to be the head of the household - "I sit at the head of the table. I carve the turkey."
This intricate and emotional book offers both praise and warning. It is both a journey into the past and a hard look at
the future, at issues of mortality and life management. It can serve as a useful guide to others who may have
inherited heart disease and who struggle to comprehend what that means for them.
