As many of you know, I haven’t been available for the last couple months. I just thought that I would take this time to explain to you where I’ve been.

Not long after starting this blog I learned that my grandfather who raised me during my teenage years was in poor health. Since he had a massive heart attack in 1994 his heart has been fairly weak and with him getting up there in age (88 years) it was only getting weaker. His lungs kept on filling with fluid and his heart was too weak to assist the lung in cleaning out the fluid, there was truly no doubt as to what the outcome was going to be.

In the last few weeks as his health was failing he forbade any of us grandkids to see him in the condition that he was in. He had lost a great deal of weight and was the shell of a man than he once was, so he requested that none of us should be allowed to see him. He told my uncle that he wanted us to remember him as he was before the decline of his health.

My mom however, got the opportunity to fly in and see him one last time. They talked about many things, heaven, how grateful she was for helping to raise my brother and myself, and what a great example he provided. During her visit my mom recalled how weak he was, she said that she mentioned me and his face lit up, he had a little laugh, and said “that Earl makes me laugh..” to my knowledge this is the last gift that he gave to me to remember him by.

He passed away on August 16th, 2006..

To say that this loss has been devastating would be the understatement of the decade. This has been, the greatest loss of my entire life.

At times in my life when I had no stability, he was the pillar of stability:

In times where divorce is rampant, he showed us how to love our wives in a loving marriage of 65 years.

Throughout hardships he always taught us to make the best of a bad situation.

His phone number and address stayed the same from the time I was born until the time that he died.

He showed us commitment, and love of country, by his service to our nation in World War II. He didn’t even get a chance to meet his son (my uncle) until he was four years old, due to his service in the war.

It was hard to get them to say a bad word about anybody, provided you didn’t play for the Detroit Tigers or the Detroit Lions. And even then, it was business, not a personal gesture.

Over the last two months. It’s been extremely hard for me to focus on anything other than this huge loss. The last thing that he would’ve wanted from me is for me to put my life on hold while grieving. Truly, every day it gets easier, and his loss leaves a huge hole in my life but, the time to move on is now.

He wouldn’t have had it any other way..

With that said, thanks so much for reading and I’ll be looking forward to our conversations in the future.. I plan on writing much more on the blog now that all of this is behind me. My wife bought me a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9, which makes updating this blog very easy for me.

So keep on coming by and I promise to deliver some cutting-edge SEO tips for you..

Thanks for your understanding, have a great day, and keep smiling..