Remembering Mac Surette: Goofy, Loveable, Special

WALTHAM, MA — On Saturday, June 15, Mac Henry Surette and his dad went to the RMV. The 17-year-old walked out with his motorcycle license. A couple weeks earlier, he saved up the $1,300 to pay for a used Suzuki motorcycle. He showed his friends in his automotive class at Waltham High School photos of the new ride. And now, he was legally allowed to drive it.

He was ecstatic.

Four days later, on June 19, Mac was riding his motorcycle down Main Street when a 52-year-old woman driving a car made a U-turn. She was late meeting friends, she later told police. Mac was seriously injured and transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital, where his heart stopped for about 20 minutes. Somehow the team there were able to restart it. They transferred him to a Massachusetts General Hospital hospital, where doctors expressed optimism because he didn't have a concussion and because his spine was OK.

And then, just after 5 p.m. Sunday, the surgeons came out to meet with Mac's family. They were not smiling.

"When they finally called it at 4:59 on Sunday, the doctors were crying when they told us," Mac's aunt Nancy Surette said in a phone interview, her voice breaking. "They said they tried so hard. It was a big table of all of us [waiting for news about Mac]. We really, really, really kept thinking he’d come out of it."

If anyone could have pulled through, it was Mac. The high school senior, who stood 6 feet 3 inches, had a knack for overcoming adversity and surprising and inspiring those around him. All while making them laugh.

Mac was just about 3 years old when his father and mother split. His mother wasn't in the picture after that. He stayed with his dad, Chuck, who raised him alone for the next 14 years. But Chuck's parents and sisters were a tight-knit family and surrounded Mac with love and attention to make up for that. He was the single child of a single father, but the seven members of his dad's family doubled as his brothers and sisters and beyond.

When he was small, his aunt Nancy said she heard children asking if she was his mother, to which he would reply loudly that she was his aunt. He didn't seem to let it affect him. Friends and family remember him as goofy, lovable and special.

He wasn't the prettiest baby, but when he was a small child, man was he cute, his aunt Nancy told Patch.

"He looked like the kid from 'Jerry McGuire,'" she said, complete with glasses. His grandfather called him the "little professor."

In part to prevent him from wanting for anything, Mac's family made sure he was busy. The men in the family took him fishing on Cape Cod. They signed him up for football and baseball. Football didn't go over well. Early on, he came home crying after three kids purposely crushed his glasses, remembers his aunt. But where that was a miss, he found his passion in hockey.

In 2014, he was already towering over his friends on the hockey team. That year he chose to be goalie, his family jokes, because he was so big he took up most of the net and wouldn't have to move much. He wasn't exactly known for his hustle.

The team, the Waltham Bantams, did well. So well, they went to the tournament in Eastham on the Cape. The game came down to a tense back-and-forth battle between goalies. Parents in the crowd bit their nails.

"We needed Mac to stop the next shot he faced to win the tournament," said Kristen Walsh, whose son was on the team with Mac.

Nancy was there and remembers holding her hands to her face. Walsh couldn’t bear to look, either.

"The next thing I hear is the rink erupting in cheers and see our kids storming the net to jump on Mac to congratulate him and celebrate," said Walsh. "Amazing moment."

Mac had won the game. He went home a hero.

You can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat animals and how animals respond to them. And there was not a dog Mac could pass without loving. He went with his aunt and uncle to Newburyport to pick up their rescue dogs and it wasn't long before he claimed one of them as his own.

"I'll let him live with you, though," he told his aunt. "But he's mine. "

And then when his family took him out to California, they had a great time until they had to leave. Mac didn't want to come back home to Waltham. Not because he would miss the sunshine that the state had to offer, but because he couldn't bear the thought of leaving Rex, the dog he'd befriended out there.

The little professor grew into Big Mac and his heart grew with him. He had a big heart and always wanted to be a big brother. Perhaps that's why he gravitated toward younger kids, offering help when he could, wanting to give in any way he knew how.

He developed a love for fixing things. He earned a license to work with heavy machinery and planned to be a diesel mechanic after he graduated and work with his dad, he told his friend Alex Rivera.

The two met freshman year in high school during gym class. The teacher asked everyone to pair up for some exercise and the last two standing were Mac and Alex. Over the years they grew closer.

They worked on a few cars together in the school's auto shop, and Alex said Mac taught him a lot of what he knows.

"He taught me the difference between disc brakes and rail brakes and how they operate," Alex said. "He taught me how to change a strut in a car."

Plus, Mac was fun to be around.

"Mac wasn’t always outgoing, but he was very funny and there was not a day when people were around him weren’t laughing," Alex said. "He was very bright, and he loved making people laugh. He loved joking around."

And maybe even annoying the teacher a bit. He was known to use a funny voice sometimes when the teacher would call on him. Maybe you had to be there, but it went over well with the crowd.

"People would just die laughing," he said.

When Mac bought his motorcycle he showed everyone in auto class the photos.

"It looked like a nice bike, and he was very excited to ride it," said Alex.

So a few weeks later, when Alex saw there had been a crash on Main Street involving a motorcycle, he tried not to let himself imagine the worst.

He texted Mac. But Mac didn't answer.

The group of friends from auto class messaged each other when the news came that Mac died. They were all shocked. They wanted to do something, something Mac might do. They came up with the idea of helping to pay for the memorial service or funeral. Alex set it up.

He was surprised at the response. But he said reading the comments has helped him in his own grieving process.

In just two days, 38 people donated $2,400. That money will go to the Surette family. Another GoFundMe started by Walsh started Wednesday raised $500 in a matter of hours

"It's heartwarming to see how many people loved and cared about him as a person, and how many people knew him," Alex said.

"He was the sweetest, sweetest kid. With the biggest heart," Nancy said. But it still surprised her and her family to find out he was an organ donor.

After the surgeon gave the family the news of his passing, the family wrote a letter for them to read before they went in and performed the surgery to remove his organs:

"My name is Mac Surette, and I was a 17-year-old boy whose life was cut short ... I was a goalie for Waltham High, I love trucks. I love fishing. I loved going to the Cape in the summer. I love to travel. I've been to Bermuda, California, Canada and all of New England. I just got my motorcycle license Saturday, I love driving my bike because it made me feel free. My father was my best friend, and he’s going to miss me beyond belief."

That’s pretty much who he was.

On Wednesday, Mac's family got news that Mac's heart saved the life of a man in his 20s. His liver went to a man in his 60s, and his right kidney helped a woman in her 30s and his left kidney a man in his 40s. His corneas will help two other people see.

Service information:

The public is welcome to attend the service from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Brasco Funeral home on 773 Moody Street Saturday. There will be a private event for family and close friends later.

Donations:

Although there are two GoFundMe campaigns, money from both will go to the Surette family to help cover the medical costs and associated bills.

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Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).