So I feel I owe Charlene an apology

[Rob1956]

Where I work is right by O'Hare airport, and it takes me about 70 minutes to get home every day to my place in the southwest Chicago suburbs. I have two sisters who are fraternal twins,
one likes and respects Gord, the other is a complete devotee like me. I get home about 7pm CDT, and there appears a text from my devotee sister saying "I'm so sorry, Gordon Lightfoot died". I immediately texted her back that I knew it was coming due to the April 11th announcement that all of Gord's concerts were cancelled for the year. I figured at that point that he was in a hospice situation and to expect the worst. And so it happened. I immediately thought of corfid.com and totally expteced to see Charlene posting the worst of news. But there was nothing there. Being a part of this message board since 2000 I felt I had to post something. So I did. Just a simple link to the Toronto Sun, I beleive, to let our community know the worst. So instead of Char creating a new thread, she decided to add her ongoing execllent commentary onto my R.I.P. Gord thread. She didn't have to do that but I'm grateful that she did. I've read Rick Haynes comments over the last few days about Gord's last few weeks. It seems the emphysema hit a tipping point and he could not breathe any more. My grandfather who worked in Indiana with diesel railroad engines had that disease due to diesel fumes and the results were the same I watched him die in 1964 the same way. No more lung capacity. It is different from lung cancer, but the results are the same. The lungs can't exchange oxygen into the system. For my dad, who had lung cancer, they gave him morphine, which made him feel great, like he could breathe, but in actuality, it tricked his brain into not knowing it was suffocating. Perhaps they did the same with Gord. Rick and perhaps more of the family will say more in the future. As fans, we want to know the truth. I don't think Gord would mind. So, Charlene, if you want to start a new thread with future Gord postings please do so. I don't know where this webiste will be in 2,5,10 years from now, but I hope someone can make it avaiable to web browsers besides Firefox. God bless all of you.

[charlene]

No apology necessary.. I was overwhelmed with so many messages, calls etc. that I just hadn't got to posting the news here..I am glad someone did tho!
After a couple of months of updates then the call on May 1 shortly after Gordon died I posted a short note on his Official Facebook page then a fan based page..then the messages started...In the morning I was sent the official press release to post and that went to the media.
His last few months were difficult for him. The details will never be told by those close to the situation..Gordon was so private in certain areas of his life and those there for the last few months will respect that.
We all thought he was invincible, that he would bounce back, hoped he would, despite seeing how frail he had become in the last year. Age and endless health concerns just caught up with him. COPD, emphysema, a severely broken wrist, a TIA, an injured leg that took forever to heal, plus the after effects from the AAA in 2002 - he just got through all of it and back on stage...I am so thankful I took so many photos and videos..photographs and memories - the times of our lives...
I was awake all night and realized in the morning I hadn't posted here so was happy to see you had posted the sad news.. With this site having so many tech issues I haven't posted here as much as I should..even though there are so few others who hang here anymore..
the Facebook pages run by fans where posts just disappear in the feed are frustrating when endless song polls/endless posting of links to youtube videos/random postings of lyrics take over....
not much substance to the discussions and if there it is lost in the feed within hours.. It's not a spot conducive to much thoughtful discussion anyway. I am hoping to find someone who can archive all of this site in some way. I can't get hold of FLorian in any way, e-mails and actual snail mail hasn't been successful.
I have been paying for FLIKR and Shutterfly where pictures are saved so I can use the links there to put pictures here. If I stop payments then I imagine the photos will be lost here on this site.. - I am not sure how that will work... I have them all saved in my own computer/files but they can't be loaded here from my files. I used to be able to just post them but then something changed and it was necessary to have a link/code thing. It is time consuming to get them posted here and I am way behind in doing so for so many things that have happened..
The consolation is that Gordon appreciated the work I did and Kim re-iterated it to me at the visitation in Orillia and again in a message.. I told her, as I have a million times, that I am, and fans everywhere are so thankful she came into his life, made him so happy and took such great care of him when he needed it. She was a lurker here long before she became a part of his life back in 2009 or so.
I've yet to post my thoughts/report about the visitation..
I will post new things here as they come up and bring back old posts that may be of interest or an anniversary of an event..
I will keep the Official FB page going as well.. Bernie wondered about that when he called the other day...

[Rob1956]

Thanks, Char. That made me feel better. When I heard the news and got on this site and saw nothing, I just had to fill the vacuum. I went back and re-read a thread I started in November of 2016 called "If you could read Gord's lungs", shortly after Gord had alluded to his "touch of lung disease" in an interview. Boy, I was ticked off at him but good. I know my parent's situation contributed to my anger at him, and as a non-smoker I just could not understand his position. However, it led, I believe, to a thoughtful discussion with many members of this site. I can only speak for myself, but I do appreciate all the work you've done here, and as a member since 2001, I've seen much evidence of it. Looking through the lightfoot.ca site, there's much recorded material that never made it onto albums, and weren't included in the "Songbook" box. Perhaps it will see the light of day someday. I sort of envision Kim, Meredith and other members of the family sort of doing what Olivia and Dahni Harrison have done with George's recorded music. Become the overwatchers of future product, re-releases, etc. Time will tell. If you go to findagrave.com then "famous" then put in Gord's name you'll see a picture of the flowers from the funeral at the foot of the Lightfoot family headstone. It doesn't look like Gord had been interred yet. For those who wish to see.