[John Chapman]

Last week began as good as any week could and ended as bad as any week possibly can.

A week ago last Thursday along with my wife and son I traveled to London where we had a great couple of days and where I finally got to spend a little time with Jonathan Billington who makes all these great transformers. He's just as nice a guy as I'd expected from out dealings over the phone and is really dedicated to making the best transformers he can. We had a chance to talk about the MK III rev of the tx102 we started shipping a short time ago. I'll have to wait to a later time to get into the details of the MK III out but it has turned out really nice.  After that we left london and we traveled to Disney Paris intending to stay several days then returning to london before traveling home.

Very early Thursday morning I received a call that my father was in hospital in intensive care. To say this was a shock is an understatement - we'd seen him only hours before we left on our trip and although he was coming up on his 70th birthday I can't recall a time he had any health problems at all. We managed to make our way back very quickly and despite all our efforts along with the efforts of the nurses and doctors he passed away mid afternoon on Saturday. At least myself and many other family members were there with him during those last  days. Although it was a difficult time for everyone we know he always had us by his side and we have the piece of mind to know everything that could be done was done.

It feels a bit inappropriate to be posting such personal happenings in a public forum but as you can imagine it's a very difficult and I am finding out an overwhelmingly busy time. I know I will have no chance of returning e-mails or calls for a few weeks and did not want to leave everyone wondering what was going on. I am sorry for this as I do try hard to keep communications with everyone very fast and responsive.

Fortunately I don't collect funds until ship time on orders and the few checks that have arrived for orders that would have shipped in the next short time will be held here. I will have good stock of parts and Quest (a local fellow who has been quite active on the bottlehead and asylum forums) was helping out before I left and hopefully will be able to help once I get started again. I will do my best to get back to things as fast as I can find the energy and the time.

For local friends that might read this before I can call please know I am sorry I did not get a hold of you first and I will call as soon as I can.

Many Thanks,

John

[gonefishin]

John, sorry to hear about your families loss of your father. After reading your words (above), it sounds as tho he's a real stand up guy, much like his son.

  God bless


   dan

[dougdeacon]

John,

My sympathies to you and your family on the unexpected loss of your father. I'm sure the BentAudio "family" everywhere has you in its thoughts and prayers.