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I sent an e-mail to one of my students this morning who has missed the last couple of classes of my classical guitar building class. His wife responded saying that unfortunately he was involved in a fatal car accident recently and has passed away. He was retired and was now finally finding time to fulfill a life long dream of building a classical guitar. He thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to take the class and was just beginning to collect tools to set up his own shop. His wife thanked me for allowing him this opportunity. Next time you feel like you are taking steps backwards when building, be thankful for the opportunity of being able to build at all.

Good one Robbie! My day job is in occupational health and safety, one of my most interesting but painful aspects is investigating occupational fatalities. One just occurred night before last where a 22 year old young man was snatched from us way too early. Having spent time with many families and fellow workers and employers of these poor souls, I can only agree that you really don't know what you have until it's gone!

My thoughts are with you my freind and good for you for helping to enrich his life that much more.

Shane

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Canada

Wow, that's a heartbreaking story. I'm not even sure what to say, so I guess I'll just stop here.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

That is sad. What his family must be feeling right now.

The crazy thing is that even though we know life is fragile none of us
believe anything like that will happen to us. Stories like this should warn
us to make every moment count.

Peace Out,
Simon

I just had a customer's wife call me and ask how much more her husband owed on his guitar. I said that it was only a couple hundred dollars she said that she would send it soon. But then she said that he had died recently and would not get to play it. I asked her if she wanted the guitar or the money and since he was a bit of a collector and she had lots of guitars she opted for the money.   That is a strange feeling.

[QUOTE=SimonF] The crazy thing is that even though we know life is fragile none of us
believe anything like that will happen to us. Stories like this should warn
us to make every moment count.
Peace Out,
Simon[/QUOTE]

You're a smart man Simon.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Wow....I was just about to post a new thread, "I am bummed", because I was final sanding today with a Random Orbital Sander and while sanding the side, I pitched the sander over and sanded away half of my binding in a section.....that is visible and hideous from the top. I read this first before I was going to post

I'll opt out of that post....and be thankful to build another day. Good perspective Robbie.

May he rest in peace.

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Guitars...One's too many...Twenty is not enough.

Well said Robbie.We all should be thankful to have the opportunity to be able to participate in such a rewarding and fullfilling endeaver.We also should be thankful for people like you who do so much to help other people fulfill their dreams.
                    James W B

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

I told my class yesterday of the sad news and immediately we decided as a class to complete this person's guitar and present it to his wife at semester's end. It gives you a whole new outlook on building a guitar.

Robbie,

Thank you so much for posting this story.

Every time I here a story like this, it reminds me how fortunate I am.

Fortunate to have a loving family!

Fortunate to have a rewarding job!

And most definitely, fortunate to have the time, and the ability to build guitars!

Also, what a wonderful idea! Finishing the guitar, and giving it to the wife of this man.

You and your students are doing a fine thing!

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Everything has beauty, But, not everyone see's it!