Tod McQuaid (1954-1990)
Tod’s pictures showed his love of life. He flew a
small plane down the Hudson River past the World Trade center so he
could get his picture looking down at the tallest building in the world
just as it opened for business. He symbolized love of flowers by
inserting a three-dimensional LOVE in a pink blooming Azaleas bush. His
daughter Liz created a similar symbol (above) at 18 when she used the same LOVE
with his wedding picture and the gold chain he wore when his murderers
buried him. Her picture is in Jan’s book.
He was murdered by three employees who wanted to take over
his growing businesses, TEMAC Security Systems, providing alarms and guards for businesses
and homes and institutions.
Tod lived 23 years of his total 35 years with Jan
and Rog McQuaid who for three months after his death keep asking each
other “what if [he or she or they or us] had only…” denial questions of
themselves, of friends, of the murderers. Finally Rog decided for both
that it was time to talk about good memories of his past. Is it not so
strange that for three or four more years, Jan cried in bed almost every
day? Grieving has no fixed period.
Others in the family felt his loss over time too:
“Today, just
like last year, is very brisk and cold. I find myself staring out the
window, a lot, just like last year. The leaves have changed colors and
are falling off of the trees now. It’s sad to see, because in a way, it
seems as if they’re dying. And it reminds me of you and the ordeal we
experienced this time, last year.
“Yesterday, the minister
spoke about waking up in the morning and seeing the new day. I’m not
sure what the sermon was about. I was in a daze, because that sentence
hit me like a ton of bricks. Because, it was the very morning – of last
year – that you (Tod) didn’t see the new day. They stole that away from
you … they stole you away from us. What gave them the right to do that
to us?”
A family friend talked about her memories and his
positive impact on her life:
“I received your book on
Saturday and finished it on Sunday, all I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“I was too young to
really know Tod well, but I remembered a few things that made me smile
and brought back good memories. I remember going to sleep (or at least
until my parents were ready to go home being) in his room, and it being
decorated with aviation and planes, and the coolest mural on his wall. I
remember bugging mom (with no luck) that I wanted to paint my room like
that. The other thing that made me smile were the pictures of the four
seasons that he took of your tree that hung on the way up your stairs. I
think I decided to pursue photography lessons after seeing those.”
Tod learned to fly at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University. He played golf at Baltusrol Country Club while on the golf
team of Jonathan Dayton Regional High School. He won the Little League
Baseball game in the bottom of the ninth, when he hit a home run at age
twelve…
Jan and Rog McQuaid are proud of Tod and of who he
was in life.
_____________________________________________________________________
Rog reviews the Second Trial ... by Errors:
Bad News-Brief from "Victimhood: A Primer" after relief for Writ of Habeas Corpus:
McQuaids received phone call in March 2004 that murderer’s sentence was
reduced due to improper seating of juror in 1991. They found that the “State” increased
McQuaid's Victimhood pain when “State” accepted murderer’s writ's
non-impartial-jury claim
without validating the fact. They also found the State failed to do their jobs from 2001 - 2003.
A pseudo diary of Jan and Rog new victim discovery in 2004 is available in
"Victimhood: A Primer" (see Links
page).
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