This Myrtle Beach man died during a recent rash of overdoses. Here is his story
She tucks her blonde-headed boy into his Lamborghini bed.
It’s their nightly routine. Book time is first.
And then he asks her to sing “Amazing Grace” — he believes it’s a long song and it will keep his mom close for just a little bit longer before falling asleep. After, they share their “I love yous” that go like this — “I love you,” then “I love you most,” followed by “I love you mostest.”
About 30 years later, Sherrill Malnofski stands at the front of Trinity Church to give her son’s eulogy. Addiction to drugs and alcohol took his life.
Cary Lee Thompson II died Jan. 3. He was 37. He’s one of nine who are believed to have overdosed on drugs in the last 30 days, Horry County Coroner Robert Edge said.
Edge said the cause of death and drugs possibly involved are unknown until blood testing is complete. Officers found Thompson dead at a home on Valene Court in Myrtle Beach.
At the scene, there was a white powder-like substance, an empty syringe and a spoon, a Myrtle Beach police report states.
Thompson struggled with heroin but became clean 14 years ago, his family said. For a long time, he struggled with alcoholism and depression after losing close friends to overdoses and cancer.
“It has been my addiction, as well as his, to deal with it,” Malnofski said.
She knew after her son’s passing it was time to share his struggles. Thompson’s trouble with addiction was at the forefront of his funeral Friday — something his mother did not initially want to make public, but she believes it is important to talk about and to encourage others who struggle or who see their loved ones suffering.
Malnofski never turned her phone off out of fear she would get the call about her son dying. And she will never forget the moment she did get the call from Thompson’s friend.
“She said, ‘Sherrill, I wanted to tell you that Cary is gone,’” she said. “Not grasping the intent, I said, ‘Where did he go?’ She said, ‘No, Sherrill, Cary is dead.’
“I hung up, sat on the stairway and screamed and sobbed. … I stood up and knew I had to be strong — I needed to decide what to do next.”
Thompson was enrolled in programs at an early age to help with his addiction. In his Bible on a page labeled “Special Events,” he wrote, “Got saved and started my walk with the Lord” on Nov. 9, 1999. Below that special event, he wrote that he rededicated his life to Christ while at a program in Hawaii on April 25, 2000.
Thompson was a hero to his father who he shares the same name with, Cary Lee Thompson.
“He was always proud to introduce me as his father,” Thompson said of his son. “I’m going to miss his smiling face. I’m going to miss his calls.”
He will never forget the first time his son took him to an Asian restaurant. Just when the older Thompson was about to take a big bite of wasabi sauce, not knowing how spicy it would be, his son shouted out to warn his dad not to eat that “big pile” of wasabi, causing heads to turn in the restaurant.
Jack Thompson, Cary Thompson II’s grandfather and local photographer, shared stories at his grandson’s funeral — one about showing tough love when his grandson found himself in a county jail in Georgia. The family decided to let him “sit there” and think. And his grandfather sent Thompson books on spiritual thinking and encouragement.
“I knew he would put it under his bunk and wouldn’t read them,” his grandfather said. “Speaking to all of his good friends, young friends, old friends around town, I realize that he did read those books because he had all of that wisdom and he was sharing that knowledge with all of his friends.
“It’s a terrible thing to lose Cary,” he said.
Cary Thompson II was engaged to Catie Rose Swartz, who he proposed to Christmas Day 2017. Swartz said Thompson would write her notes, and since he died, she got a tattoo of his handwriting.
“Cary was the love of my life and I was his,” she said. “We had so many plans for our future that we will never get to fulfill, and I’m left brokenhearted trying to see what’s left for me. He was all I’ve had the last three years. He was my whole life.”
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For the past 10 years, Thompson was close friends with Chris Acrey. When they reunited after being away from one another, they never skipped a beat.
The thing that set Thompson apart from others was his willingness to help people and not expect anything in return, Acrey said.
The 37-year-old was a free spirit who lived in the present, his mother said. He didn’t conform to social norms, and he lived life on his own terms. He listened, but did not take advice, Malnofski said. And he’d “tell you like it is,” his father said.
Jennifer Forehand, a longtime friend to Thompson, said he knew everyone in the community by name — the neighbors, waiters, cashiers.
Forehand lived behind the scenes of Thompson’s life through the last six years.
“I had to distance myself because it was too painful,” she said of his addiction. So she would pray daily for Thompson — “Lord, please work a miracle. Let him feel your love,” she wrote in a journal.
Through the pain, she never forgot who he was.
“When you’re under a lot of stress, he brought a lot of joy,” Forehand said. “He had such a sweet, kind heart.”
Thompson also had one son, 14-year-old Skylar.
“I thought my heart would burst as I watched him become a father,” Malnofski said. “The love in his eyes — so obvious.”
The family started a GoFundMe page to raise education funds for Thompson’s son.
Family and friends celebrated Thompson’s life Friday. Gathering to remember him, they shared stories, sent paper fire lanterns into the sky with messages on the beach, and, of course, sang “Amazing Grace.”
This story was originally published January 17, 2019 at 7:58 AM.
