Getting back on track after moving here last March meant beginning my day by reading GDN while having breakfast. I love to read columns. Getting the right perspective about what the columnist has said and to understand his writing skills have been of great interest to me, especially Gordon Boyle.
When I first read Mr Boyle’s column on April 14 last year, the content was so touching, I couldn’t stop myself from sending an email to him.
My heart sank when I turned the pages of GDN on Sunday to read Mr Boyle had died suddenly at his home in Scotland. He suffered a suspected heart attack.
Come to think of it, he had written to me in April 2020 that it would be something else that would kill him and not his disease.
Here’s what he wrote, (reply to my email) I quote:
‘Many thanks for your uplifting email and this pandemic is teaching us all from young to the old to expect the unexpected.
When I talk about the unexpected, many of us focus on the negative such as we are today but many unexpected things happen which are positive. It is almost eight years since I was diagnosed with my disease and at the beginning before treatment I was given six months to live.
The treatment I received, including a stem cell transplant, was expected to give me a life expectancy of five years.
So here I am eight years later and I have convinced myself it would be something else that is going to kill me and not my disease.
Have a great day’.
Well, did he know this back then?
Rest in Peace Mr Boyle.
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