My sincere appreciation to all my online friends and associates on TFF for the incredibly kind words, and most importantly for the good wishes and thoughts and prayers, posted in the "update" threads that AbbeysDad initiated over the past few weeks. Your words have meant more than most of you can ever realize, during what has been without question the worst period in my life of now 70 years; I reached for the tissue box several times.
A special note of gratitude to Mike for keeping in touch and providing updates. As Mike said, he and I have known each other online for some 15 years now and I too consider him a good friend, and a very knowledgeable hobbyist. It is truly a rewarding pleasure to work with such colleagues.
Cancer ruins and takes the lives of many people, and no doubt others on this forum have experienced this directly or with close family. I am certainly not alone in this, and I am without question luckier than some have been, in that, at least for the moment, I have overcome the immediate danger, though it was a very close call; the CT scan the week prior to the second surgery identified how aggressive and spreading the cancer had suddenly become. It was truly a sobering realization that I might not have lived much past the end of this year.
One has quite an adjustment to make in how one lives day by day, when internal organs are removed and some form of substitute functioning internal and external is necessary. This has been a very long haul, and the worst is now behind me. The future will be different, but I expect and pray that my life will again have some of the value that has been eroded over the past couple of years.
I have not reached the mental or physical strength to return to an active participation on TFF. Just as I am slowly improving my basic life responses and skills, so too will my mental faculties improve. The basis of humanity is helping others, and that applies to this hobby as well as it should to every aspect of our lives as human beings. May God bless each of you.
Byron.
A special note of gratitude to Mike for keeping in touch and providing updates. As Mike said, he and I have known each other online for some 15 years now and I too consider him a good friend, and a very knowledgeable hobbyist. It is truly a rewarding pleasure to work with such colleagues.
Cancer ruins and takes the lives of many people, and no doubt others on this forum have experienced this directly or with close family. I am certainly not alone in this, and I am without question luckier than some have been, in that, at least for the moment, I have overcome the immediate danger, though it was a very close call; the CT scan the week prior to the second surgery identified how aggressive and spreading the cancer had suddenly become. It was truly a sobering realization that I might not have lived much past the end of this year.
One has quite an adjustment to make in how one lives day by day, when internal organs are removed and some form of substitute functioning internal and external is necessary. This has been a very long haul, and the worst is now behind me. The future will be different, but I expect and pray that my life will again have some of the value that has been eroded over the past couple of years.
I have not reached the mental or physical strength to return to an active participation on TFF. Just as I am slowly improving my basic life responses and skills, so too will my mental faculties improve. The basis of humanity is helping others, and that applies to this hobby as well as it should to every aspect of our lives as human beings. May God bless each of you.
Byron.
