I didn't expect to add more, but I have just read the last comments from Idaho 50 and the beautiful Ellen.

Walt was a lifetime smoker. His cigarette, dangling from his mouth, was almost a trademark. I remember early on, when he showed me one of his performers tricks ... perhaps you've seen this. When you change your guitar strings, leave the bottom E string and inch long. Use this as a cigarette holder. I can well remember watching spellbound as as he sang a long ballad, while his cigarette was speared and smoking, on the head of his guitar. He used this theatric to the fullest. It was often a contest to see if he would finish the song before the ash fell ... he never lost!

As Idaho 50 said, he suffered terribly from emphysema. The last few years of his life was an ongoing struggle for breath, although by now he had successfully quit smoking. He had to medicate himself frequantly. And yet throughout this period, he managed to keep working. He also managed, amazingly, to keep performing on stage. And it was as Idaho 50 said, he'd occasionally duck behind a piece of stage scenery so a stage hand could give him a whiff of oxygen. And yes, he could occasionally still belt out a song, but it took a lot out of him. On our last fishing trip together, after he had moved back to the Northwest from Hawaii, I had to piggyback him out of the woods to the truck ... but he was smiling because he'd caught a trout!

I knew Walt was very ill. He called me on a Tuesday. He'd just returned from a Doctor's appointment. He invited himself (hisself, as he used to say) to my home for the weekend, but he laid out the rules: "I'll be there Friday, I want a hoot Saturday, and we'll talk Sunday, BUT ONLY ON SUNDAY." That Sunday he told me that he'd been diagnosed with smokers cancer and it was terminal. (smokers cancer is NOT lung cancer. but cancer of the pancreas). They had done all the tests. The average length of life after the diagnosis is 90 days ... Walt lived 89 days.

One very telling part of this story was that he was very concerned about ME! The previous year, I had lost two very dear friends, one in January and one in September. He knew how it impacted me. So here he was, telling me of his news, and he was concerned about ME! (Again, as he often said ..."shhheeeeez!")

As the final weeks sped by, he did agree to a few treatments, but only in an effort to improve his quality of life. I also know he was concerned about the strain he was causing on friends. During those final weeks, we talked about a lot of stuff ... including the impact of cigarettes. And this is the reason I'm posting this final message.

If you know someone who smokes, try to help them quit.

I can't close this thread without mentioning how fortunate Walt Robertson was to have two very dear and devoted friends move in and help him through the final process ... we should all be so lucky!

CHEERS and BEST WISHES ... Bob Nelson