I know some of you have wondered whatever happened to member @tommo47, and I felt like it's time to make it official. To the best of my knowledge, he died.
We were engaged in multiple times daily PMs for months. We shared personal information that we wouldn't want made public, and I have to be mindful of that as I choose my words.
The last I heard from him was on August 20th, just another, regular, daily PM, nothing to worry about. He finished it by asking me a question. I replied, and then heard nothing. I waited a couple of days, knowing he was ill, and tried again. Nothing.
As he posted in his thread, he had been diagnosed with, and was being treated for, esophageal cancer. This is where it gets tricky not to violate his trust. He had been given a very bad prognosis, but had assured me that he and his wife were dealing with it, and that he had no plans to give up on life. Then everything stopped.
Over the months I've tried contacting various places where he lives (in the UK), places he had mentioned in our PMs, like the hospital that was treating him and its associated nutritionists who were going to his house. I've come up empty. I understand medical privacy laws and everything, but I've also contacted shops that may have worked on his 'rig'--his prized Triumph motorcycle with the Watsonian sidecar, which was delivered on July 12, the day before his birthday. Empty there, too. I've searched obituaries and death notices but have not found anything there either.
My guess, and this is purely a guess, is that he died unexpectedly and unrelated to his cancer. Perhaps a heart attack or something like that. He absolutely was doing okay given the circumstances, and was super excited to have the rig he had dreamed about for years. He was looking forward....
I'd give a million dollars to be proven wrong. Nothing would please me more than to have tommo pop in and say, "how dare you declare me dead?!" But I don't think that's going to happen.
We were engaged in multiple times daily PMs for months. We shared personal information that we wouldn't want made public, and I have to be mindful of that as I choose my words.
The last I heard from him was on August 20th, just another, regular, daily PM, nothing to worry about. He finished it by asking me a question. I replied, and then heard nothing. I waited a couple of days, knowing he was ill, and tried again. Nothing.
As he posted in his thread, he had been diagnosed with, and was being treated for, esophageal cancer. This is where it gets tricky not to violate his trust. He had been given a very bad prognosis, but had assured me that he and his wife were dealing with it, and that he had no plans to give up on life. Then everything stopped.
Over the months I've tried contacting various places where he lives (in the UK), places he had mentioned in our PMs, like the hospital that was treating him and its associated nutritionists who were going to his house. I've come up empty. I understand medical privacy laws and everything, but I've also contacted shops that may have worked on his 'rig'--his prized Triumph motorcycle with the Watsonian sidecar, which was delivered on July 12, the day before his birthday. Empty there, too. I've searched obituaries and death notices but have not found anything there either.
My guess, and this is purely a guess, is that he died unexpectedly and unrelated to his cancer. Perhaps a heart attack or something like that. He absolutely was doing okay given the circumstances, and was super excited to have the rig he had dreamed about for years. He was looking forward....
I'd give a million dollars to be proven wrong. Nothing would please me more than to have tommo pop in and say, "how dare you declare me dead?!" But I don't think that's going to happen.
