I thought I'd pass on this new from George Imirie ([log in to unmask]) to
BEE-L.
Happy New Year all!
Aaron Morris
From George:
Christmas Eve 2006
Merry Christmas and Happy New year
Hi Y'all,
Yep, I am STILL ALIVE, and the esophageal cancer is in partial
remission. I thought that I would write one letter to several of my
close friends who would spread the word among the myriad number of
friends that I have, particularly among the MASTER BEEKEEPERS, bee
SCIENTISTS, QUEEN breeders, and bee EQUIPMENT dealers.
The FIVE strokes that I had between 1990 and 1999 were far more
injurious to my mental health than the cancer discovered 2 years ago! I
lost my ability to WALK in 1996, and get around in electric scooter and
now a "walker" in the house; but the loss of VOICE in 1999 is FAR WORSE,
because I can no longer LECTURE, TEACH, or COMMUNICATE.
The cancer in my throat just gives me a minor sore throat, but lots of
heavy phlegm.
My voice is little more than a whisper, and my diction is so bad that
few can understand me in telephone conversation.
Upon discovery of cancer, and being in the CENTER of United States
foremost medical centers, the Washington-Baltimore area with Johns
Hopkins, National Institutes of Health, and the Lombardi Cancer Center
at Georgetown University Hospital, I chose Georgetown, notably because
it is a TEACHING hospital with its OWN staff of a multitude of
speciaiist physicians and research physicians, and they SELECTED me as a
patient because of my SCIENCE background in ATOMIC medicine. First, I
was given RADIATION therapy for 5 days per week for 6 weeks, followed by
CHEMO therapy. Not satisfied with those results, they asked me try
LASER BEAM therapy of by esophagus.
ONLY
Johns Hopkins and Georgetown have been doing this for about 3 years, and
Mayo Clinic just started. You are injected with chemicals that make you
EXTREMELY sensitive to any type of light, particularly DAYLIGHT. Two
days later they put an endoscope down your esophagus. take biopsies of
the throat and upper stomach, burn the cancerous cellls with LASER BEAMS
(no pain whatsoever), and 48 hours later, do another endoscopy of the
throat looking for missed spots and taking all kinds of photographs.
The worse part is that I dare not let any part of my body be exposed to
any bright light for the next 30-45 days in fear of a bad sunburn, so I
read, study, and watch TV in a dark room at home. My next treatment is
January 15th, and "who knows", maybe I might go in long term remission
of cancer, or maybe conditions are worse.
In spite of all these problems, I am in GOOD SPIRITS. WHY? When my
wife of
59 years of
marriage died of pancreatic cancer and diabetes 4 years ago, I being
unable to WALK or TALK really thought of suicide because of depression
and LONLINESS. Three momths after Valerie's death, a Nevada beekeeper
e-mailed me that MarJeanne, an "employee"
of mine when I was testing atomic bombs back in the 1950's was widowed.
I had not had any contact with her for 49 years, but the Mormon Church
gave me her address and phone number. I telephoned her and she too was
alone in her big house with swiming pool and very LONELY, so she flew
from Las Vegas to Washington to visit me. She has 2 Great
grandchildren, and I have 4 almost teenage. We spend about 12-16 weeks
per year with each other and planned to marry, until I was diagnosed
with cancer, where upon I canceled those plans. She will be here for 2
weeks over New Years, and return again for 8 weeks in May and June for
traveling together in my van for DISABLED. We go both to the Mormon
services and the Presbyterian services every Sunday "keeping in touch
with God", and the Catholic medical staff at Georgetown treat us as
"royalty". GOOD SPIRITS? YOU BETCHA! Out of my graduating class of
106, only 17 are thought to be alive and I was to only one of my class
to make HOMECOMING last October, and the spectators ROARED when I
"paraded" down the field on my motor scooter, Both MarJeanne and I
CRIED.
Although I only have 8 Colonies of bees now (I had 30 on December 7,
1941 PEARL HARBOR) all are strong, raring to go after the first nectar
in April, I surely MISS "educating" beekeepers, and instructing them how
to KEEP bees. I am ashamed to say that our NON-AGRARIAN society of
today know little more about honey bees other than "sting", and the
majority of our new beekeepers just REFUSE to learn or spend much time
with bees, and constantly blame mites, bad bees, lousy queens, the
goverment, neighbors, disease, even full moons for their loss of bees.
Meanwhile, I don't lose hardly any bees and have to give them away to
keep bee population down. I MIGHT have a plan to announce to Maryland
beekeepers this spring to get them more "educated" about bees, but I
want to talk to Dewey Caron about it first. My January cancer treatment
will be a factor in my decision.
THAT'S ALL! Except it would not be me if I did not CHALLENGE each of
you knowledgeable beekeepers; SO each of you start giving some TIME and
HELP to those fairly new to beekeeping, so they start getting some
EDUCATION about how to KEEP bees and ENJOY bees. I can no longer do it,
and there are precious few really trying to help this education PROBLEM.
SHUCKS, there are still hobbyists out there that believe Terramycin
KILLS American Foul Brood, nor realize that their infected colonies are
spreading AFB to wild bees and other beekeepers colonies! What about
those beekeepers who don't mark their queens, and have no idea of the
age of any queen in their apiary?
I sure MISS going to the meetings of ABF, EAS, NHB, and AHP, where I
learned SO MUCH year after year!!!
NEXT year will be my 75th year of beekeeping at my home in Maryland,
which predates the founding of any of these bee associations
Have a great year and lots of fun with your bees in
2007!
George W. Imirie, Jr.
12705 Circle Drive, Glen Hills
Rockville, MD 20850
GImasterBK. AOL.com
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---
|
