Category Archives: Status Updates

Dad’s memorial service will be held September 24th at 10:30 AM. The service will be located at the Prescott Center for the Arts (previously named Prescott Fine Arts Association). After the service, we will ride to Smokin’ Harley’s Steakhouse (in Mayer) for a celebration in Colin’s honor.

For more details, please visit the Colin MacDiarmid Mermorial Service event page.

Friends and family,

It has been six days since our father passed. Our loss is indescribable. This has been especially difficult because we were so focused on positive thoughts of recovery during the last few months. Now it all seems so definite and out of our control. Every morning is like waking from a nightmare, only to realize we’re not dreaming.

Friends and family,

We are very sad to let you know that Dad passed away this evening. It was very peaceful and he was surrounded by family. We will post additional thoughts, as well as information about arrangements, in a few days.

Thank you so much for all your love and support.

Love, Colin and Ian

PS. Dad – We miss you tremendously…

Friends and family,

Dad’s heart condition has worsened in the last 24 hours. It is stopping almost hourly for 15-25 second periods. We are told that each of these instances are impacting his other organs. At this point, the doctors state there is liklihood he will pass on soon, but they don’t know when. There is a chance he may not survive until the weekend.

Nothing hurts us more to write this, or to acknowledge it, but we feel it is important we let those closest to him know.

Thank you as always for your continuing support.

This is a hard update to write…

Dad is not doing well.  His health has deteriorated in the past week to the point where doctors are unable to take him to surgery.  And there continue to be complications with his major organs, including the heart, lungs, kidneys and, most recently, his liver.  His heart stopped this morning for 30 seconds.

Friends and family,

We are continuing to hope for the best with dad’s recovery, but, as we’ve seen more than once in the last couple months, this isn’t an easy road. Unfortunately, most of the grafts placed on dad’s left leg in the last surgery did not take. The doctors say this is due to bacteria on the graft site and they are remedying the problem by applying a super strong ointment that should kill most of the bugs before the next surgery. This means dad still has two big surgeries to go.

Family and Friends,

Thanks so much for all the thoughtful posts and emails over the holiday! We are headed back to Phoenix on Friday and look forward to reading him the latest… we’ll let you know how it goes. We love seeing them, so we know dad will love hearing them!!

Dad’s 8th surgery took place on Tuesday, June 28th. The doctors were able to autograft all of his left leg and a portion of his right leg. We knew there was a possibility that some areas might not be grafted due to the large surface still needed to be covered. As you might expect, we are super excited to see the main grafts be completed. The doctors feel that dad will experience fewer complications when all the major grafts are done. Surgery #9 will be scheduled once dad’s donor sites are healed (typically 10-14 days).

Friends and family,

We are on our way home from visiting Dad for four days. We arrived in Phoenix early Thursday, so that we could stop by Prescott Thursday evening and attend the City Council meeting there. The Prescott Valley Police Department and mayor Harvey Skoog were presenting the Distinguished Life-Saving Award to four Prescott Valley residents that went above and beyond in assisting Dad at the scene of his accident. This was especially important for us, so that we could meet and thank those individuals ourselves, and so that we could speak with them about their experience.