Just found out my best mate has a brain tumor and has 6-12 months to live. We always joked that whoever made their first million would take the other to Africa. He's loosing his sight,memory and finding it hard to speak, I know this guy well, he's not going to let himself become a vegetable. Isn't life just fucken great!
Sorry about the post, I'm alone at work and feel like shit right now
Posts: 8146 | Location: Bloody Queensland where every thing is 20 years behind the rest of Australia! | Registered: 25 January 2001
Bakes Sorry to hear about your mate. Sometimes one wonders what life`s all about. Just goes to show that it`s no dress rehearsal and we must appreciate every day.
I hope it works out well for him.
Posts: 789 | Location: Australia | Registered: 24 May 2002
AHHH! .... what to say? It's so easy to overlook the odds we must beat in growing old. I know he'll come value your friendship more than ever before and take some solice in the fact that you will do what needs to be done, in his absence. Very sorry indeed, my friend. Nick
Bakes: it happened to me some months ago, I�ve lost my hunting partner and still can�t adjust to it. Perhaps you should think that he�ll hunting happier grounds and you were blessed with his friendship. Regards
Posts: 1020 | Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina | Registered: 21 May 2003
Sorry to here about your mate. This past Jan. I lost one of my very best friends to colon and liver cancer. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think of him.
Spend as much time with him as you can.
Posts: 208 | Location: Lat:32.346;Long:86.174 | Registered: 07 January 2003
We are with you Bakes, This is a shitty time and a shitty thing for you. It was cool to hear of your pact to go to africa.
In a way to spit in deaths eye, my small group of warriors where sitting around a fire years back when a friend was checking out. We made a pact that when age started taking its toll the others would resort to the "Clan of The Cave Bear" style of dealing with it. If the infirmed could hold on til spring he would be taken to Churchill as the Polar bears are leaving the ice. There he would be left with his favorite knife and some fish.
Very morbid I know, but none of us want to go out a pussy...........We where forged in battle and will by most likely hood meet Ole' Scratch in battle.
It is times of these that is why we all need the reminder that we live full throttle for -TODAY-.
It is easy for me to say sitting here, but please Bakes do not mourn your mates passing, CELEBRATE his being. We all are with you.
ED
Posts: 174 | Location: U.S.A | Registered: 15 August 2003
Bakes, sorry to hear about your friend, and I understand the concern for his wellfare! I just had a cancerous tumer removed from my left hand, but was lucky,I thought,when they got it all on the first try. Now they are looking at what may be another one at the base of my skull in the back where the head joins the spine! Got my firgers crossed that this one turns out to be benign!
Enjoy your friend TODAY, for yesterday is history, and tomarrow is a mistery, and today is all you can count on! Make him comfortable, and talk to him, even if he can't talk back, so he doesn't feel abandoned! Again I'm sorry for you, and your friend!
Posts: 14634 | Location: TEXAS | Registered: 08 June 2000
DAMN! I'm really sorry to hear about your mate. I lost a 40 year old, non-smoking, friend to lung cancer a couple of years ago and it was a really tough time.
Best,
JohnTheGreek
Posts: 4697 | Location: North Africa and North America | Registered: 05 July 2001
Several years ago, in a single year, I went to six funerals of friends that all died before their 50th birthday.
It could be me next and I say this: When my day comes, I want my friends to say that I lived my life to the fullest....I want them to be happy I went on a safari and planned another.
Words never seem to help!!
My condolances
Posts: 28849 | Location: western Nebraska | Registered: 27 May 2003
Bakes I feel for you. I lost my Brother 3 years ago and it still hurts. Take full advantage of the time that you have left with him - you won't regret it.
Sorry to hear about you�re friend but I know how you feel. One of my best friends was diagnosed as having a frontal brain tumour a year ago, at the moment it�s not growing but he�s changed a lot.
This may sound strange but lets hope it doesn�t drag on too long. I think you know what I mean.
Posts: 2213 | Location: Finland | Registered: 02 May 2003
There for the grace of God go I. You will cherish your days afield with your friend for the rest of your time here then you will be reunited. I lost my brother 20 yrs ago and he was only 17 at the time but he is with me always.
"Dieing is easy...It's living thats hard" Josy Whales
Thank you all for your kind words and prayers. My mate, Don, has to be one of the smartest guys I know, if I wanted to know something about anything I rang him, he worked his way up from a troop to an engineering officer and gained the respect of everybody he met. He was the one who sparked my interest in the tech side of firearms and thanks to him I feel I can hold my own in any conversation about this sport of ours. He was also the one that put me onto this site (although he's not a member)where I've met alot of people that I would be proud to share a campfire with (and the odd bourbon).
He's putting his guns up for sale with the proceeds going to his kids and I think I'll buy one. He has a rough knockabout columbium mauser in .308 that he was going to customise, I'll do the job for him.
Don was comming up for three weeks in November to go hunting and fishing, now the trip will be cut short to 1 week. I've told him I'll try to find him a big bull buff for what will be our last hunt.
Thank you all again for your thoughts.
Bakes
Posts: 8146 | Location: Bloody Queensland where every thing is 20 years behind the rest of Australia! | Registered: 25 January 2001
quote:Originally posted by Bakes: Just found out my best mate has a brain tumor and has 6-12 months to live. We always joked that whoever made their first million would take the other to Africa. He's loosing his sight,memory and finding it hard to speak, I know this guy well, he's not going to let himself become a vegetable. Isn't life just fucken great!
Sorry about the post, I'm alone at work and feel like shit right now
Thats my mom prognosis too. Just found out 2 weeks ago. hurts like hell, then you get mad, then it hurts again.
Posts: 1407 | Location: Beverly Hills Ca 90210<---finally :) | Registered: 04 November 2001
Bakes, I too am really distressed to her this news. Life is short and sweet no matter how long it lasts, though its never long enough. Do your best to help your mate make every remaining day count for both of you. Make a pact with him to experience something that you would have both like to do together. You can fill him in on the adventure when you meet up again.
This should serve as a reminder to us all how quickly life's plan can change and how precious our time here is. Love your family and friends, and live life like there is no tomorrow. You can plan for tomorrow, but you can't count on it.
You and your friend are in my prayers. Forrest
Posts: 5054 | Location: Muletown | Registered: 07 September 2001
quote:Originally posted by Bakes: He's putting his guns up for sale with the proceeds going to his kids and I think I'll buy one. He has a rough knockabout columbium mauser in .308 that he was going to customise, I'll do the job for him.
Bakes, I am deeply sorry to hear about your mate. The best thing you can do is take that .308 to Africa. Have you ever thought about taking your hunting & shooting and passing it on to a younger person. Here in the US we have an organization called Big Brothers. It is where a boy with out a father is paired with a man who quite often is the only male influence in his life. What could be a better way to honor your mate than to pass it on to someone who might never get involved in the shooting sports? A friend of mine (Tom)who influenced my hunting life quite heavily passed away about 11 years ago. I was able to get another friend from school involved in hunting. I was able to pass it on. Someday I have to write the story of Tom's last antelope.
Hi Bakes, Well, hard times. You just have to pick yourself up and be strong for your mate, as strong as close you are, and strong as the friendship is, and always will be, while it can be,here and now, and in the Happy Hunting Ground.
All the world is a hunt, and death itself is the hunter, and no man will prevail over death. Ironic, cruel, that your bright mate should go this way, but go just so far, hopefully, and suffer little.
My condolences, and prayer. Be strong. Go hunting with him, sooner than later.
Posts: 28032 | Location: KY | Registered: 09 December 2001
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