Ahoy Tampa Bay Parrot Heads!
I hope you are all friends with out founder Capt’n Harry on Facebook! If not go
find him and friend him you might learn a lot about one of our founders. On his
Facebook page today he asked
everyone to pass his last post on to everyone they knew. This is his
Epilogue to his most recent adventure, but more importantly it talks about one
of the Tampa Bay Parrot Heads original members. Please do as he asks at the end
and send some funny cards to Michele (one L).
Your Skipper
Bryan
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Capt’n Harry’s Facebook
Post today . . .
IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ ALL
EPILOGUE
The adventure that started out in May from right where I
am in Boot Key to the Bahamas, back to Florida to St. Augustine and back down
to Book Key has ended. Gypsy Wind did a fantastic job of safely getting
me everywhere I needed to go – though there were some challenges at times –
weather, engine wiring problems and mainsail coming down to name a few.
When I started this Facebook thing my first entry was
about how since Heidi and I had ended our relationship and due to the fact that
we were now back in Florida, I was able to hear about one of my best friends
passing and was able to attend his Celebration of Life and be the main
speaker.
Now I want to say something about Heidi and if you
believe in karma and these kinds of things like we both do, then maybe things
between us happened for these reasons.
Our friends, Rob and Michele live in the Keys. They
met at the Tampa Bay Parrot Head Club (TBPH) that I co-founded with Sarah
Sunshine in 1994. They were two of the earliest, founding members who
joined. One day they asked me to marry them and it was the first of
probably ten couples who met through the TBPH that I married. We have
remained very close friends over the years.
Michele was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of
skin cancer that all of the oncologists have said they have never seen in a
person so young – 41. Heidi has been with her day and night, taking her
to chemo treatments daily, helping her and Rob in any way possible.
Michele had to go in the hospital for a few days to have a feeding tube put in
her and just got out yesterday. Heidi has spent the night there almost
every night. Michele has two more weeks of treatments that are even being
doubled up this week since she couldn’t have them while she was in the
hospital. It has been absolutely hell for Michele and Heidi has been by
her side the entire time. As Rob told me many times these past couple of
weeks, “Thank God for Heidi. I do not know what we would have done
without her”.
If we were still in the islands, neither of the above
would have occurred. We were supposed to be here. Who knows if
Heidi and I will ever get back together again? But we both know
that we were supposed to be here at this time in our lives.
Furthermore, I would like to thank Judith from Singing
for Change (Jimmy Buffett’s Charity), Esther from Key West Margaritaville, as
well as the folks at Palm Beach Margaritaville for helping me. In addition, big
props go out to Steve Huntington and Radio Margaritaville for doing their
part. They will BRING MACK THE MAGIC! And, of course, none of this
would be possible without Jimmy Buffett. I can not tell you all how much
what all of y’all did meant to Michele. It brought some wonderful joy to
her and that is so important right now. THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH!!!
Finally, every one of you reading this could do something
to help Michele get through this. She still has weeks of hell to go
through. Trying to put a smile on her face (which is very hard to
literally do since that is where the radiation is going, but she will feel good
inside) is some of the best medicine around. If each of you and any of
your friends and their friends would take a few moments today and go out to a
card store and get the “funniest” GET WELL card (or 2 or 3) you can find and
mail it to Michele, I would sincerely appreciate it. You can tell
her it is from you as a Parrot Head friend, or a friend of Capt’n Harry’s or
whatever. Just please do it. You can send them to her at:
Michele White
670 LaFitte Road
Little Torch Key, FL 33042
That is it for now. I doubt I will be one of those
who puts a lot of posts on my Facebook page unless I have something interesting
– like an adventure – to write about. So it may be a while. Or
hopefully, a new adventure will start soon.
Until the next one . . . Capt'n Harry