We are back on board Sea Sharp and I'm quite reflective tonight. While I know you do not read our blog to consider my take on life, I feel entitled to one note where I can dig a bit deeper than how many bridges we transited or how much fuel we burned. I promise not to be maudlin in subsequent blogs.

I'm reminded of the old morality plays which were based on the struggles humankind has between good and evil (yes I did pay attention to my English classes as STFX). Unfortunately we experienced an evil situation involving the death of my brother and assault on my dear niece. However, I am buoyed (slipped in a nautical term to keep you boaters interested) by the outpouring of sympathy and concern.

The past three weeks have been a blur of emotions. We still, and expect to for a while, to find ourselves crying unexpectedly. Judy, in particular, is prone to this but I'm certainly not immune. What kept us going is the love of family and friends but what can only be described in relation to those who helped us but did not really know us, GOOD!

We had dozens of phone calls; many reluctant to call but feeling compelled. Some of whom we did not have a chance to respond to (Al from Angelus., Ray and Ray Ray from Whisper, you are among those). All were brief but heartfelt and understood our grief but wanted to share a few quick words.

We had an amazing amount of food delivered to our house. I never thought I'd see the day when I didn't want to see another ham and scallop potatoes cross our threshold but it came close. Actually it was fortuitous 'cause we had a lot of friends and relatives in and out and we ate every bit! We had many folks who offered to help in any way they could; I called on several and they delivered without expectation of recognition or reward. To mention a few; Ray and Helen our new boating friends were there for us when we found out about the tragedy; Bob and Carolyn who picked us up in Bangor, offered us their house and generally performed the role of proxy brother and sister; Bernie and Charline turned over their house to us immediately to provide a place for a police briefing to our family; Tom and Charlotte who not only facilitated the recordings for the funeral but Charlotte dyed Judy's hair the night before the funeral; Tony who, unprompted, looked into some matters for us; Tom, Tony and Bernie (aforementioned) who went for a long walk with me and talked about anything but the tragedy I was dealing with; Herb and Helen who opened their house to us for the overflow of relatives; Mike and Bonnie who shared their experiences and encouragement; Clare and Fedo, our dear friends who came to support us; Harold and Ann who drove us to Bangor (and also are like our older brother and sister in so many ways); Randy who fixed John's car so Laura could drive it; Mary and Bob who gave us their car for almost two weeks (our second car had been stolen remember); Liz and Gary who invited us to dinner just when we needed a quiet and sensitive evening; Harry and Henny who spent a couple of very important hours with us during a particularly bad time; Peter who helped me with pics for John's obit; Norm and Sarah who travelled from Halifax to hug us; Julian who in his ever-sensitive way, drew me through some difficult thoughts; John J. who sensitively and determinedly navigated the shoals (another boating term) of interfaith incongruity to oversee two amazing church services for John, Bob W, my brother-in-law who was the beacon (one more) of strength and logic as we dealt with the public aspects of this situation and, certainly not least, Janet and Arden who endured our melodrama and deep grief and knew just how to react. Finally to the more than 1400 persons who attended John's funeral, most of whom we were unable to connect directly with, thank you for your anonymous support. So many others offered and we know that we could have called on you and you would have delivered.

So now for some folks we don't really know but who recognized our grief and in keeping with the GOOD aspects of this real life morality play, gave of themselves unselfishly. Judy ad Joe from New Bern, spent the day today with us helping us provision, get the rental back and coach us on the next parts of the ICW. The Homeland Security Manger, Chris Collins in Houlton, who firmly at first but extremely sensitively later handled our dramatic border crossing (more in our next blog). The folks at Bock Marine where we left Sea Sharp and understood our distraction and took good care of our boat. Nancy at my bank who helped me through difficult unwinding of fraudulent transactions; Erin my insurance agent who did the same; Allyson, running buddy and banker friend who also helped sort stuff out.

So Dear Readers, what I'm trying to illustrate here is that there's a whole bunch more good in the world than evil. Many of you have advised us to resume our cruise; it has been heart wrenching to leave our family; in particular Carol, Colleen and Laura. But we need to get on with life. We will not abandon our grieving but will embrace our new adventures. John would loath the attention his death has attracted and would not want our lives to be disrupted on his account. We'll try to comply!

The picture associated with this blog is of Judy and I along with Laura and John, on Sea Sharp the summer before last.