>Alan,
>
>It is confirming what I already feared..... I suspect he must have died at the end of may. I've lost a friend.
>
>I'll remember Jim as a person with an incredible dedication to his work. Besides of being a very good colleage we were good friends. We had many drinks and laughs together and went through good and bad times. Jim was an incredible tough guy. Even when he was ill you would not hear him complain. Even when he decided to switch jobs, just before he got sick, we kept in touch.
>
>At the last diner we had we learned that he had stomach cancer. He told us that the physicians caugth it in time. He had surgery soon after. I promised him a nice juicy steak on my next visit to Toronto, but unfortunately when I got back, jim could barely eat and was very ill. Initially he was doing fine, but the additional radiotheraphy was exausting him enormously. Jim posted a message here on the forum saying that he almost left this world at that time. Though the surgery was a success and the cancer had gone, his condition was not improved. In the end he got additional complications and eventually died.
>
>I've lost a friend.
>Rest in peace my friend, rest in piece..
>
>Walter,

Walter, I hate to hear the news about Jim. I enjoyed the occasional repartee with him, as did many others. One thing to keep this in perspective, don't dwell on his absence, think about the good times and Jim's contribution to life.

We are all going down this path, but I think you have to think about the good times. There's a line in one of my all time favorite movies, Lonesome Dove, where Gus says to Woodrow. "I ain't talking about dying, Woodrow, I'm talking about living!"