Thanks Roland, it will be 7 years one week from today and it still seems so recent, I still struggle with it. I will probably spend a lot of time on here that day as this has proven to be therapeutic for me.
My wife understood that because I made myself laugh when I was here, which is a gift, being able to amuse oneself. I left the old forum when I was losing my Dad, 16 months prior to losing the best thing that ever happened to me, and she asked me to get back on there as I was sinking into myself. I left again when losing her but returned shortly thereafter. Then lost my Mom coming up on 2 years and I am damned sick and tired of losing so much of what made my life.
I think once members on the old forum knew more about me, the more forgiving they were of my proclivity to turn on the stream of consciousness. The one thing I would do differently is let the folks on there know what I was going through and allow them to offer support. I have only met one member of either forum, Gip, but the circle of friends I have made here and the things I've seen them go through and the battles some continue to fight have a strong hold on me. Someone who hasn't been a part of this would scoff at that. "A sports forum? Really"? They have no idea how much more this is than that.