Tidelines – September 13, 2012
It’s with a heavy heart that I write this week’s Tidelines. My good friend Charlie Brown has suddenly found himself in a battle with cancer, and in the wake of this terrible news I find myself unsure of what to do or how to feel.
The Greenville, NC-specialists have given a grim prognosis, but every time I give Charlie a call he tells me in a booming Harker’s Island brogue, “We still have lots of fishing left to do together.” So how am I supposed to process these two conflicting views? Accept the doctors’ opinion and start planning the goodbye? Dismiss the doctors and stay positive? Wade somewhere in the middle?
I don’t know the doctors, but I know Charlie. If Charlie tells me he’s ready to do battle and fight this cancer, then I’m with Charlie.
No matter how the battle goes, the Brown family, like other families that have faced or are facing the same disease, is already feeling the financial stresses of treatment, travel, loss of income, etc. My reaction, one of shock, has left me struggling with not knowing what to do. Even when I call Charlie on the phone, the conversation inevitable leads to him consoling me, telling me not to be worried and that everything is going to be okay. I call and want to be there for him, but once again it’s Charlie, my good friend, that’s there for me.
Luckily, Charlie has lots of friends, and many of these friends have already created ways for people to assist Charlie, wife Sandy, and the rest of the Brown family.
The first event is a benefit dinner on Harker’s Island (see ad copy on page 5). The folks on the island will have a BBQ chicken dinner and provide lots of giveaways throughout the day. The second event is the annual CCA Inside & Out tournament in Morehead City that has named Charlie Brown as this year’s beneficiary (see ad copy on page 22).
The world is a different place now that my friend is in trouble. I’m questioning everything, struggling to make sense of it all. For example, I don’t know what difference this Tidelines will make, just as I’m not sure what affect any ad copy will make. All I really know is that Charlie Brown means the world to me, he needs help, and I have to do something. Writing and promotion are easy for me, so that’s where I’m starting.
I have lots of hopes. I hope Charlie is right and the doctors are wrong. I hope my readers go to the dinner or enter the CCA event or go on Facebook and look for the Benefit for Charles Brown page to find other ways to help.
Finally, I hope each of you pauses and takes a moment to be grateful for your own Charlie Browns, those individuals in your lives that make the blues bluer and the greens greener.
