Greeetings,
Although I’ve been a lurker for the past couple of years, I’ve visited the forum several times every week. Last week, I was diagnosed with stage 4 small cell lung cancer. The prognosis sucks – 6-12 months if the chemo works and less if it doesn’t. I’ve been in a bit of a quandary as to how to best let folks know about this, especially the folks I’ve sailed with in the SSS. I “know” some of you very well but I know you by your boats’ names and how you sail those boats– not very useful for contact purposes.
It’s important to me that you know what the opportunity to have sailed with you means to me. It’s important that I tell you how much richer it has made my life.
Some of the people who have learned about this have responded with great sadness. I understand and appreciate that but, while I am also profoundly sad that an expiration date has been stamped on my can, the date is way past what I could ever have imagined given some of the choices I’ve made. It’s important that anyone who is also sad about this knows that my sadness isn’t about dying: my sadness is about not living anymore.
Ergo is going on the market. She’s a great boat and she’s always taken great care of me. I’d sail her anywhere. In fact, she’d be my boat-of-choice over any other. Like many of the boats in our fleet, she just looks old and not very attractive except to people who sail or want to sail the way we do. I’m going to list her with John Saul at Bearmark Yachts and post that soon.
I’ve been getting ready, for the past four years, to sell her but thought I’d have more time to reconcile doing that. If not for this development, I’d probably spend the next four years still doing the math. It’s hard reconcile what she’s “worth” and what’s she’s worth to me. It’s really not about the money: it’s about the experience, which, to me is priceless.
So, a collective “Thank you” to all of you.
Bill Merrick
Although I’ve been a lurker for the past couple of years, I’ve visited the forum several times every week. Last week, I was diagnosed with stage 4 small cell lung cancer. The prognosis sucks – 6-12 months if the chemo works and less if it doesn’t. I’ve been in a bit of a quandary as to how to best let folks know about this, especially the folks I’ve sailed with in the SSS. I “know” some of you very well but I know you by your boats’ names and how you sail those boats– not very useful for contact purposes.
It’s important to me that you know what the opportunity to have sailed with you means to me. It’s important that I tell you how much richer it has made my life.
Some of the people who have learned about this have responded with great sadness. I understand and appreciate that but, while I am also profoundly sad that an expiration date has been stamped on my can, the date is way past what I could ever have imagined given some of the choices I’ve made. It’s important that anyone who is also sad about this knows that my sadness isn’t about dying: my sadness is about not living anymore.
Ergo is going on the market. She’s a great boat and she’s always taken great care of me. I’d sail her anywhere. In fact, she’d be my boat-of-choice over any other. Like many of the boats in our fleet, she just looks old and not very attractive except to people who sail or want to sail the way we do. I’m going to list her with John Saul at Bearmark Yachts and post that soon.
I’ve been getting ready, for the past four years, to sell her but thought I’d have more time to reconcile doing that. If not for this development, I’d probably spend the next four years still doing the math. It’s hard reconcile what she’s “worth” and what’s she’s worth to me. It’s really not about the money: it’s about the experience, which, to me is priceless.
So, a collective “Thank you” to all of you.
Bill Merrick
