MIAMI (WSVN) - A man is scattering the ashes of his 9-year-old son at famous baseball stadiums across the country.
Nine-year-old Johnny MacDougall was just like many young children. He loved to go camping, liked boating and loved Disney World. However, Johnny’s father said that there was one thing that set him apart from other children. “What sticks with me was he really thought about the world and the globe,” said David MacDougall. “He saw the beauty of it, he saw the inequities of it, and he pondered really big concepts — and he got it.”
Johnny died in January 2015 from a brain aneurism. “To this day, it’s tough,” Johnny’s father said. “He was a shinning star. He was so bright, so it’s painful.”
Johnny’s family wanted to spread his ashes in his two favorite places: the South Florida water ways and Major League baseball parks.
David hopes to keep a promise he made to his son when he was only 5-years-old to travel across the country. “He said, ‘Yeah let’s do it,’ and then I thought that it was something we can do as father and son forever,” David said.
Johnny was able to make it to a few parks, including Nationals Park in Washington D.C. and plenty of Marlins games. His father then came up with the idea to spread his ashes at stadiums across the country.
“I could continue this journey with him by going to the parks and spreading his ashes, so I thought ‘What better way to honor him than to do that?'” David said.
Three months after Johnny’s death, David and his other son Tommy went across the country to spread Johnny’s ashes, and David said he feels his son with him in every park. “It’s sad but it’s a way for me to connect, that’s all,” David said in tears. “It’s sad but it’s happy.”
David said he and Johnny never missed an opening day at Marlins Park, and he never plans to. He said he still buys Johnny a ticket.
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