thinking about who my grandkids will think i really was

as i wonder around the real world (ha) and on the internet i am fortunate to meet a lot of different and interesting people. as you get to know anyone, questions arise as always like; what do you do for a living? why are you not married? so on and so forth. i tend to retract at some point as the other party is zeroing in on the inevitable....what is your condition? followed impertinently by the obligatory; oh, i am very sorry.

note to my grandchildren: guys; there is/was more to me than my cancer. i am living a full life in many ways and i am enjoying it. i have seen many wonderful changes in life. i have travelled a great deal. i have lived through some of the most extraordinary times mankind has had on this planet.

i have been using computers and been on the internet since oh lets see; 300 baud modems. i have gone scuba diving off the arc at the end of baha and i saw the underwater sand slides there. hell, i saw elvis and the beatles. i have been from one end of this wonderful land to the other.

now that i think about it...i have seen the birth of all of you.

i have lived and at moments loved, just not very successfully.

i have had hero's and i have cried. just like you have or will; i have made mistakes.

please do me one favor; for your old grandpa. don't think of me as that old guy with cancer. think of me as that somewhat strange old man who accepted what life gives and made it as best he could with as much dignity and humor as he could manage. to each of you...follow your dreams, they are what make YOU who you really are.