Sam sat down in the plane with his laptop in his lap. He was a writer and had writer's block before. But none like this. He wanted to write and hoped that would take away some of the pain. But he just couldn't. Couldn't express his feelings.
Toby always said he lacked verbs and punctuation. But Sam never lacked words. How to explain a sadness so deep he couldn't quite figure it out yet?
And when a memory came to him he almost laughed. And his almost laugh turned in an almost sob as tears fell from his eyes, for the first time since he heard the news. And then he wrote.
"Leo McGarry, as President Andrew Jackson, wanted the White House to belong to the people, so from time to time, he opened the doors to those who wished an audience. It happened on the first of every month, actually it was not every month for we were running the country and we were quite busy."
"It was called 'Big Block of Cheese Day' or like Toby fondly called it 'Throw Open Our Office Doors To People Who Want To Discuss Things That We Could Care Less About... Day'. But Leo cared about it. He always cared. He did his best all the time and he always gave 250 of himself to the job."
"He got tired of choosing the lesser of two evils and he wanted to get a good man elected. And he did. In fact, he got a good man elected twice. And had this not happened he would be the good man getting elected."
"He cared about his staff like he cared about his family, he was the guy that jumped in the hole with you to help you get out. He was a good friend. He was a good boss. He was a good man."
Sam hated talking about Leo in the past tense. He hated because it made it real. He had heard the reporters on TV talking about him in the past tense. Made him want to scream at the television and he almost winced at the memory of his broken TV in his apartment.
The text didn't feel finished. And he didn't want it to. Because Leo McGarry's life couldn't be described in a few paragraphs and if he finished it, it would always be missing something. Like he was. Missing something.
John Spencer was a great actor. And the last few days I've read comments from close friends and co-workers of him that claimed he was "an uncommonly good man" and that "John was a true pillar of a man, he set the stage for kindness and generosity".
My text can never do him justice, but I just thought to remember some of my favorite memories of Leo McGarry.
"If we're gonna walk into walls, I want us running into 'em full speed." Leo McGarry (1.19)