- Thread starter Hillbilly
- Start date
I never wanted to write this post
As one who just went through a bout with prostate cancer, I am another who will stress how important it is to get checked on a regular basis.
There are many more treatment options available today than there were just a few years ago.
I hope Graham has the strength to pull through this test, and he will be in my prayers.
There are many more treatment options available today than there were just a few years ago.
I hope Graham has the strength to pull through this test, and he will be in my prayers.
sorry to hear you went through it. glad to hear you came out the other end, and are still with us.
when i went in for prostate surgery, the doctor at Bournigal, Camilo Crespo, told me to stop worrying, because prostate cancer is now very controllable.
GW was a long time heavy smoker. He got the first warning when Ginnie passed away.
I know I can say the following because he has said it to me and he even approached an young woman who was smoking and told her to stop, that he had LOVED smoking his whole life long and that now he hated he did because he had cancer.
He regretted "every each cigarette and cigar" he ever lit up.
Most, when told will brush the warnings away with "oh, one has to die one day anyways" or the typical "I know someone who's uncle was a chain smoker for his whole live and lived to be 96years old and died in a car accident".
Yes, one day we all go... not today... but today it took GW's life away... and it was not a walk thru the park. I have seen him, and heard him moan over the phone, cough up, vomit, shiver...
I write this, because I've witnessed him wanting others to KNOW what he was going thru and his regrets, it was his last legacy.
... J-D.
I know I can say the following because he has said it to me and he even approached an young woman who was smoking and told her to stop, that he had LOVED smoking his whole life long and that now he hated he did because he had cancer.
He regretted "every each cigarette and cigar" he ever lit up.
Most, when told will brush the warnings away with "oh, one has to die one day anyways" or the typical "I know someone who's uncle was a chain smoker for his whole live and lived to be 96years old and died in a car accident".
Yes, one day we all go... not today... but today it took GW's life away... and it was not a walk thru the park. I have seen him, and heard him moan over the phone, cough up, vomit, shiver...
I write this, because I've witnessed him wanting others to KNOW what he was going thru and his regrets, it was his last legacy.
... J-D.
Bushbaby was one of the first people I met in the DR back in 1997. I have lost three friends in the past year to cancer, two of them smokers and the other a lifelong non-smoker. It is a horrible disease and a terrible way to die. May Graham rest peacefully.
Grahame has departed this earth. I think J D has pretty much summed it up. In a way some of us are kind of ****ed off because he did ignore a lot of the signs. Thank God that there are now a lot of options available: IF CAUGHT IN TIME!!!!.
God rest you Grahame, it is very possible that your passing will save lives, and I could be one of them! That, folks, is a true friend.
HB, who is going to the doctor asap he can see me!
God rest you Grahame, it is very possible that your passing will save lives, and I could be one of them! That, folks, is a true friend.
HB, who is going to the doctor asap he can see me!
In his last months he WANTED to save lives, maybe more than save his own.
After Ginnie passed, he decided he needed to stop. He reduced it a lot. And I was amazed how fast he changed in "color".
Let's be honest, they both did not look healthy back then and were both pretty much chain smokers. They looked "gray".
Grahame turned almost "pink" within a few months of laying off strongly... I could not believe it. His energy went up, he started eating and getting out more than just for plowing away golf balls.
I used to get him Nicotine gums and patches from each trip from the US... he was so addicted to it still.
Yes, he disregarded the first warning signs... some of them he got in writing. When things started to take a turn for worse about 6 months ago, I went thru his medical documents. At that time he still tried to argue that "they" did not know if it was cancer or just a tumor... I found two letters by STI doctors dated back THREE years saying he had cancer. He didn't want to "see" it.
We rushed him to Miami where he got the cancer removed from his bladder. He staid at my Florida Residence for a few weeks and decided to have a "light" chemo in the DR instead of staying longer in Florida. It went down hill fast from then on.
I went to visit him a week ago. He didn't look good. We joked around as we used too, we were quite a show together, we always threw all the "insults" at each others in public, people thought we were about to go at each other's throat...
When he tired, he looked at me like he never did ever and said "you have been a good friend and your visit has made my day"... this was a stark contrast to the usual lines we would throw like "OK, are you about done annoying me or do you still need to let some venom go?"... I knew then, it was a nice way to say "good bye"... no hugs just a very sincere handshake. He said "by" to Melany too who waited in the car.... "sea una buena niña" was his last words he would give her along her way. Got into my truck, turn around at the cul-de-sac and pulled by... he was still standing and smiled... a last gift to remember him by... we waved and I hit the horn as I usually did because it was a great way to annoy him... he still waved... and I said to Melany: "remember him by that smile".
I am in Florida now, fixing to make arrangements to come to POP.
... J-D.
Stopping to smoke is EASY. I did it many years ago:
Just DON'T have ANY smokes at your house, in your car... short in your possession. PERIOD.
It's NOT Heroine or Crack... you'll survive WITHOUT it.
Grahame was an individual who lived his life the way he wanted to.
When I visited his house in January I knew his strength was waning, even though he still had an attitude that he would kick it. As I was leaving, we hugged, for the first time ever. In the nearly twenty-or-so years that we had been friends, we hugged that time, for the first and last time. Even though we said the things people say like "See you next time!", it felt like we both knew.
I'm very, very happy to have included Grahame Bush in the fun and interesting people I've known in my life. I'm so happy I knew him.
Rest In Peace, GW. Glad I was there with you for your hole-in-one. Golf buddies tend to remember those little things, Old Feathery!!
I found an old thread documenting some of our golf adventures -- with some fun photos of Grahame. Great memories!
http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php/72045-Hole-In-One-at-Las-Aromas-Santiago-golf-course
When I visited his house in January I knew his strength was waning, even though he still had an attitude that he would kick it. As I was leaving, we hugged, for the first time ever. In the nearly twenty-or-so years that we had been friends, we hugged that time, for the first and last time. Even though we said the things people say like "See you next time!", it felt like we both knew.
I'm very, very happy to have included Grahame Bush in the fun and interesting people I've known in my life. I'm so happy I knew him.
Rest In Peace, GW. Glad I was there with you for your hole-in-one. Golf buddies tend to remember those little things, Old Feathery!!
I found an old thread documenting some of our golf adventures -- with some fun photos of Grahame. Great memories!
http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php/72045-Hole-In-One-at-Las-Aromas-Santiago-golf-course
There are those addicted to the niotine, those addicted to the rituals of smoking, and unfortunately those whose struggle is the worst because they are addicted to both. My in-laws quit 30 years ago, in part because I had just quit. Sadly other family members did not follow suit.
Very nicely written by J D, Hillbilly, Festero and the rest of you who were close to Grahame. He and his wife seemed to be real class-acts and you guys sharing your memories together seems to be as well.
May I ask when he and his wife first moved to DR?
Milo
May I ask when he and his wife first moved to DR?
Milo
Milo, I just checked in my copy of Ginnie's book, Quisqueya: Mad dogs and English couple. They moved to Puerto Plata on November 19th, 1992. I think I will read it again in honour of them both. Still some extremely sound information there, always respectful of the Dominican people and their culture. They understood what it meant to be guests in this country. I think I first met them in 1998 or 1999, just before I moved here.
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Today, we laid Grahame and Ginnie to rest.
It was Grahame's wishes for his ashes to be spread over the mountain overlooking Puerto Plata, let go from the Cable Car and united with Ginnie's ashed he had kept for 7 years.
I thought it would be a challenge to fulfill his wish, but on the way back, the wind was favorable and they left in a big cloud, united and slowly settled to their final resting place, united as we slowly descended away.
The mountain will have a whole new significance to a handful of us who were there...
I hope they could "see" it.
May your rest in peace my friend... thanks you for all these years of loyalty.
... J-D.
It was Grahame's wishes for his ashes to be spread over the mountain overlooking Puerto Plata, let go from the Cable Car and united with Ginnie's ashed he had kept for 7 years.
I thought it would be a challenge to fulfill his wish, but on the way back, the wind was favorable and they left in a big cloud, united and slowly settled to their final resting place, united as we slowly descended away.
The mountain will have a whole new significance to a handful of us who were there...
I hope they could "see" it.
May your rest in peace my friend... thanks you for all these years of loyalty.
... J-D.
Haven't logged in here for far too long. My condolences to HB, JD, and all the rest of Grahame's friends - of whom there were many. The DR just won't be the same.