Wayne Rogers Knew He Was Dying \u2014 What He Told Loretta Swit Still Breaks Hearts<\/p>\n
By 2014, Wayne Rogers knew his time was getting short.<\/p>\n
He picked up the phone, called the woman he\u2019d been calling his \u201ckid sister\u201d since 1972, and dropped all the jokes.<\/p>\n
\u201cKid,\u201d he told Loretta Swit quietly, \u201cI need to say something serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it?\u201d she asked, already afraid.<\/p>\n
\u201cI may be going sooner than we thought,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if I go\u2026 I need you to promise me something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loretta started to cry.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t talk like that, Wayne\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to,\u201d he insisted. \u201cYou have to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he said the one thing only a big brother can say:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I go, you have to be strong.
\nDon\u2019t stay sad too long. Don\u2019t cry yourself to pieces.
\nI want you to live. To be happy.
\nThat\u2019s how you honor me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou made me strong,\u201d he added. \u201cSo you don\u2019t get to fall apart. Not for long. Be strong\u2026 for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loretta wiped her eyes and whispered,
\n\u201cI promise. But please\u2026 don\u2019t go yet. I\u2019m not ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their Last Christmas Together \ud83c\udf84<\/p>\n
Christmas 2015, Loretta flew to see him.<\/p>\n
Wayne was thin, pale, and tired. But when she walked through the door, his whole face lit up.<\/p>\n
\u201cKid,\u201d he smiled, \u201cyou came.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course I came,\u201d she said, carefully hugging him. \u201cForty years, Wayne. I\u2019ve never skipped Christmas on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
They sat and talked for hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember the first day on MAS*H?\u201d he asked.
\n\u201cWhen you were scared to death and I told you, \u2018From now on, you\u2019re my kid sister\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
Loretta laughed through tears. \u201cI remember. You made me feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are safe,\u201d he told her, squeezing her hand.
\n\u201cWith me\u2026 and even when I\u2019m gone. Because I already taught you how to stand on your own two feet.\u201d<\/p>\n
She knew what he was saying.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t go,\u201d she said softly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to,\u201d he whispered. \u201cBut I\u2019ll wait for you up there. Big brothers always wait for their little sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was, in her heart, their goodbye.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe Wasn\u2019t Just Trapper. He Was My Brother.\u201d \ud83d\udd4a<\/p>\n
On December 31, 2015, as the world counted down to a new year, Loretta\u2019s phone rang.<\/p>\n
\u201cLoretta\u2026 Wayne\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room spun. She cried the whole night.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy big brother is gone,\u201d she kept repeating. \u201cHe\u2019s really gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few weeks later, at his funeral, she stood up to speak \u2014 voice shaking, heart breaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the world, he was Trapper John,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cTo me, he was my big brother for 43 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
She told the story of that first day on set.
\nHow he\u2019d put an arm around her and said:<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom now on, you\u2019re my kid sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he kept that promise,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cEven after he left the show. He called. He checked on me. He protected me. He believed in me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then she kept her promise, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWayne told me, \u2018If I go first, you have to be strong,\u2019\u201d she said, tears in her eyes.
\n\u201cSo I will be. For him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI love you, Wayne. See you later, big brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
For millions of fans, Wayne Rogers will always be Trapper \u2014 the wisecracking surgeon with the easy grin.<\/p>\n
For Loretta Swit, he was something deeper:<\/p>\n
The man who stepped in, stood up, and stayed in her life for 43 years\u2026
\nwho taught her to be strong long before he ever asked her to prove it. \ud83d\udc9b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wayne Rogers Knew He Was Dying \u2014 What He Told Loretta Swit Still Breaks Hearts By 2014, Wayne Rogers knew his time was getting short.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viral-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralarticles.it.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralarticles.it.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralarticles.it.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralarticles.it.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralarticles.it.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/viralarticles.it.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807,"href":"https:\/\/viralarticles.it.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralarticles.it.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralarticles.it.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralarticles.it.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralarticles.it.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}