Sorrowful news to report about Mac...

As many of you have probably realized, it has been a little over a month since Mac has posted to this forum. He has been ill for awhile and when he went in for some tests, he received some very bad news. Mac was diagnosed with metastatic cancer of unknown primary origin in January. The cancer was detected in the abdomen and in the brain. He had an optimistic attitude to get treatment and return to the forum but unfortunately that scenario looks as if it cannot play itself out. Mac is now in a nursing home and not expected to be with us much longer. I'm sorry I could not inform you of his illness earlier, but it was his absolute wish not to "clutter" the forum with worry over his situation. My feeling is that he wanted the forum to revolve around QBasic, and not Mac's troubles. I know that might upset some of you but for any of you who find yourself uncomfortable with not knowing about his condition, I would ask you that you think for a moment as Mac would. I'm hopeful that if you can see it from his view, you will understand why he wanted to keep his illness quit, at least until he knew his fate.

Currently Mac is in a nursing home, as he is in need of full assistance. His daughter Christina emailed me today to let me know that Mac is still himself but can only answer direct questions and only with short replies. She stated she would be happy to print and read to Mac any emails you would like to send him and to please write “QBASICMAC” in the subject line so she will know what the email concerns.

If it is any help in deciding how and what to write about, I can offer this. Mac stayed extremely positive throughout his illness and liked to receive emails that discussed ideas and events instead of dwelling on illness. Telling him about all the joy and happiness he brought to this forum might be a better way to express your feelings rather than telling him how much he will be missed or how bad you feel that he became ill. That will be my message to him, tomorrow but each of you will have to decide what you would like to convey to him, yourselves.

Concerning this forum, it is Mac's wish that the forum should continue on. I will be working out the details along that line and post about it in the coming weeks. For now, I want that topic to be shelved to concentrate on saying goodbye to a close friend. I hope that you will all contact him at the email address below as soon as possible:

qbasicmac@gmail.com

I have just returned from an out-of-town trip for Mother’s Day and I’m posting this late so those of you who are in different time zones can read it sooner rather than latter. I’m heading off for bed and will not be able to respond to any replies until sometime tomorrow. This is certainly the hardest thing I have ever had to post to this forum and I hope I have conveyed the situation well enough. Mac and this forum to me have always been one-in-the-same and it will be very hard for me to imagine this place without him in the future.

Pete