Martin:
Hi Guys
I just want to share with you something off-topic and personal. Last friday (2022-05-06) my father passed away and I had been quite busy dealing with that issue.
My father worked for IBM since the 70's till 1999 and I learned a lot of things from him that I used in my career and personal life. Thanks to him I learned OS/2 at its time and studied Computer Science. He was a great man and it had been a great loss for me and my family.
During this month I will be dealing with the usual local bureaucracy and taking a closer look to the family business with my brother.
I will be slowing down a little bit with OS2World during the next month, but I will keep connecting to check on a few things, slowly updating the hobbes archive, and I still have on my plans to assist Warpstock 2022 and stream the event with the help of the community.
Thanks to everyone for their condolence via e-mail and social networks.
Regards
My condolences as well as to your loss - I lost my Dad 20 years ago this year (2002)
What made it the hardest was that they had done a vehicle trip roughly 1400 km from Winnipeg in the Province of Manitoba west to Alberta here in Canada, as they had done many times before. They had stayed for a week, and my father seemed in good spirits throughout the week - my wife Anne later said she noticed that at times he would be staring out into space strangely for minutes on end, but then seemed fine - I didn't see it.
They left for the trip back on a Sunday and stayed in Regina, Saskatchewan, about two thirds of the way back - at dinner he suddenly keeled over and collapsed on the floor - he had had a massive stroke and, getting to the hospital, they informed us that the stroke affected the part of the brain that governed the basic motor functions of the body - basically total life support was the only thing that was keeping him alive, and he wasn't anywhere near home ............ !
If there is any positive involved, it was that he was the only driver, and nothing happened then - if it had not occurred when he was in Regina, a car accident may have claimed both my mother, and her sister, my aunt, as well ...........
I can't imagine the shear force of will he might have had to exert, if he thought something was happening to him during the drive.
I had to fly to Regina the next morning, only to make the painful decision, with one of my brothers and my mother present, to end life support that morning. I was with him up to 10 minutes before he passed away ............
That death haunted me for months, because I always wondered if there was more I could do, or should have seen. And most importantly ........... W-H-Y?
In the end after months of reflection, I came to conclusion it was God's will - he desperately needed my Father somewhere else ............
I don't know if that provides any comfort in your loss, Martin, but I hope him being gone allows you to focus on him, and what you had together in this sad time, when he was there physically. Nothing will bring him back, but I hope, like me, you can come to the conclusion that despite him not being there physically he stills lives in you everyday - ask him when you are troubled and I'm sure love will give you an answer.
My father was a Gentlemen ........... and a Gentleman. I hope you have as positive reflections as well, when you think back on your father.
Mourning is for the living, and coming to some peace related to what has happened. That is natural in everyone - what you do here is unimportant, when it comes to those you love - we will muddle along, despite how important you are to all your friends - and that's what you have here - a community of friends.
Arthur C. Clarke once wrote a novel called "Childhood's End".
The story is irrelevant to what I want to say but the title is - one of the hardest things we ever have to do in life is realize that, with the passing of our parents, childhood ends and suddenly we may be the oldest generation of our family - everyone now thinks that we have all the answers, however woefully inadequate we seem to feel, when we are asked to step into their shoes ........
I hope that gives you some comfort in this sad time, but everyone deals with a one great finality in different ways - I'm thinking about you at this time and Best, Sir!
Mark