  I haven't been a great communicator. I changed computers and didn't transfer my e-mails that had downloaded to the old over to the new and didn't end up replying to those e-mails. But that's a lousy excuse. As a result, we ended up missing out on communicating with one of the great BT warriors that we had the distinct pleasure to meet.
During the early fall of 2002, Keith and I attended the National Brain Tumor Foundation's Brain Tumor Conference in Denver. It was a great opportunity for us because he had family there so it was a chance to see them, plus there was this great conference there so a good time to get information and meet other BT survivors. And to top it all off, David Bailey was performing there besides! So it was all good. Well, we flew out to Denver, and family met us at the airport and delivered us to our hotel.
We got checked in and took the elevator up to our room, sharing it with another couple who were obviously also there for the conference. The husband was very tall and forbidding looking with his shaved head and walking stick. The wife was shorter and very friendly looking. We got off at different floors and found our rooms. There was some preliminary stuff going on for meeting other conference goers which we skipped out on that first day because we just needed to rest up a bit, but finally we decided to wander down toward the conference to get our bearings and see what we could find. While we wandered down the hallway, we again bumped into the couple we'd seen in the elevator. Keith and I are pretty shy meeting people, but we did introduce ourselves and began searching for the conference rooms together.
I tell you, they couldn't have picked a worse venue for that particular conference. Take a bunch of people who've had surgery to their brains and are suffering from short term memory loss, have difficulty with map reading or following directions, and other such problems, and put them in a hotel where all of the conference rooms are spread out so you have to go down varying hallways, different sets of elevators, and even different buildings because the hotel has been added onto over the years!
Luckily, these BT warriors also have a great sense of humor for the most part! We met more people there with big open hearts full of love and laughter. As the conference went on, we got to know Tim and Sharon a little better. They were wonderfully open people. Tim was being treated for a stage IV GBM, the same tumor type as David Bailey. Those are the biggies, folks.
They don't get any scarier than that. He was so funny and made you feel so comfortable and at ease talking with him. He was always threatening Sharon that he was going to have a tattoo put on his head to cover his scar. :) That just sounds darned painful to me. As I said, I wasn't a great communicator. I e-mailed them after we got back from the conference. I heard back from Tim in January of last year and we exchanged a couple more e-mails that month. He sounded pretty good at that time but said he wanted to talk with us some more about things and that he hoped to hear from us soon.
I got an e-mail from Sharon today. You can imagine how I feel tonight hearing that Tim lost his battle in December. Our love is going out in waves to you, Sharon. I'm so glad you got in touch with us. We'll be lighting a luminaria on June 18 at our Relay in his honor. He'll be walking with us in spirit. We remember you both well. 
