“We can do no great things, just small things with great love. It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it.”
~
Mother Theresa
Anyone that spent anytime with Sawan knows how much he loved. One of the striking qualities of his life was the compassion with which he approached people and the comfort they felt in his presence. His passion, his enthusiasm, and his love were the greatest parts of his life – and all of us that knew him can already feel the tremendous void that has been left in the wake of his passing.
Sawan was born in Marin County, California on August 2, 1969 to Michael Nail and Helen Hite but spent many of his growing up years in Kailua, Hawaii where he graduated from Kailua High School and then moved to San Francisco, and San Diego before coming to Denver in 1991. Denver would be the place he considered his “home town.”
Some of his favorite achievements and accomplishments he listed as:
“A man who.....has been sober for more than 4 years~has driven a motorcycle 140 mph~thinks mean people suck~has been in a hurricane, 2 blizzards, been caught outside in a crushing hailstorm and evacuated because of a tsunami~loves hazelnut americanos~has been 2200 miles up the Amazon river~ has seen the Taj Mahal with my own eyes~has been bitten by a snake, 2 dogs, a goose, a cat, countless fish and about a gazillion mosquitos~cries every time Rudy finally gets accepted to Notre Dame~would risk my life for someone I've never met~takes a flyrod on every vacation, no matter where, just in case ~doesn't remember learning how to swim(I could always do it)~ digs climbing trees~has gone over a waterfall to land a trout~ would take the lonely highway in the first place, on purpose~has had over 150 stitches~tried to ride a BMX bike off a roof into a pool and missed ~believes there is a difference between listening and hearing, and that to get respect you have to give it~believes that there is a God~and finally, believes that the greatest gift anyone posseses is the ability to recognize their own gift.”
He described himself as an AVID fly fisherman whose passion for the sport in recent years “bordered on obsession” and that he was “ridiculously addicted.” The hundreds of photos of beautiful fish that he proudly displayed for all that would look were always accompanied by the passionate stories of how each fish was caught – and he always remembered every fish. He said that the only thing that eclipsed his love of fly fishing was his “love for my precious wife, Noel.” In addition to her, he is survived by his sisters Nimi Sybert, Rani Sanderson and Michael Nail.
On Monday night, the 24th of August, after running a low grade fever for several days, Sawan was feeling poorly and laid down to take a nap. When Noel arrived at home he wasn't breathing. Neither her efforts nor those of the paramedic team were able to revive him. The postmortem report was completely inconclusive leaving the actual cause of his passing a lingering question. However it did show that he had an enlarged heart. For those of us that knew him well, it was no surprise that it also showed that the enlargement was not directly related to the cause of death. With all of the things he did – be them great or small, he always did them with great love. We would only expect that to find that Sawan’s heart was larger than normal and we will miss it desperately.