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The GFMPH Cruise was the best GFMPH cruise ever.

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Posted 12/14/2013 11:12 AM (GMT -5)
Sorry it has taken me a week to post about the success of the GFMPH cruise last week but it has taken me all week to decompress and have the time to post. I also had my cell phone stolen in Cozumel and that slowed me down some too.

What can I say, 14 of our HW brothers and their wives all cruised together from New Orleans to the sunny Caribbean for 7 days. It was one fantastic cruise with so many highlights and way too much fun to mention in this post. I will say for me the highlight of the cruise was hearing our Todd sing in the Fizz lounge the last night about how he is living above his cancer, it brought tears and a standing ovation from the packed crowd and our Rock Star made us all so proud.

Only 4 of us were seasoned GFMPH attendees and with so many newbies it was so great seeing their reactions as they found out how attending a GFMPH gathering can change a life forever and make friendships that will last a lifetime. I now have 10 more to add to my list of lifetime friends. Many of our group of newbies are already talking about coming to the GFMPH gathering Florida Style in March. I will be there too as I already miss them so.

Please if you can get to Florida in March, do not miss this chance to change your life for the better and get to Sonny's, ask anyone on the cruise how much the cruise gathering changed theirs. If Todd and Mandy can get there from Washington, anyone can get there, no excuses this time. Sonny has started a thread about this gathering if you want more information.

Terry
Posted 12/14/2013 12:34 PM (GMT -5)
I will second that the Cruise was a real blast. Yes as usual new lifetime friendships were made.

The big difference between reg GFMPH and the Cruise is that much of the time we all had different schedules. In the first part of the cruise we were not sure how the bonding would happen. It sure did!

I so hope to see some of you guys I. Florida at Sonnys house in March!
Posted 12/14/2013 4:59 PM (GMT -5)
As a testimonial to attending a gathering, on the cruise Redwing57 brought his best friends on the cruise, his name is Tom. Tom and his wife are fantastic people who fit right in with our group of zanies even though he doesn't have a yucky prostate like the rest of us. I got an email last night from Tom thanking us for letting them come along on the cruise. He said they had so much fun they hoped they could meet again with our group. I told him that he was made an honorary member of GFMPH and that since Redwing is coming to Sonny's in Florida he and his wife should come with them. Just got back a response and he is so happy they can be included and can't wait to meet even more of us there. smilewinkgrin
Posted 12/15/2013 3:25 PM (GMT -5)
This certainly was a great experience. As a newbie, I was a little apprehensive not knowing anybody except for HW and Facebook. This was not a group of people that were similar in many ways other than we all had prostate cancer, or, we all had good friends who had prostate cancer. This event brought together a very diverse group of individuals. I felt at ease with everyone shortly after meeting them. The candor with which we spoke about our unique situations was refreshing and enlightening. One week out from the cruise, and I miss all my new friends very much. Looking forward to the next time we meet.

Paul
Posted 12/15/2013 3:46 PM (GMT -5)
Tom and Karen were a little apprehensive before the cruise, but Terry made them feel welcome long before we met in New Orleans. The whole group was so upbeat and open that I think everyone felt like long lost friends upon first meeting! Pretty unique experience. Karen couldn't believe it, asking "Really? Most of these people have never met each other?". We were really happy with how everyone so quickly made all feel completely welcome.

We are all quite diverse individuals, but this forum is rather inherently social and supporting. So it's not terribly surprising that meeting in person would be a natural evolution of those online relationships.

A number of us are also motorcycling enthusiasts, and there's not a much more social bunch than bikers! I miss our new friends too!
Posted 12/15/2013 7:33 PM (GMT -5)
Terry, thanks, what a great cruise! We have been so busy getting back to reality (the cold), and catching up on our Christmas prep, I have not had time to post either. I did however get to read Todd's excellent blog on the trip, and feel that his singing for us all was such a wonderful gift! It was so great to meet everyone and their spouses, and to now put a face/personality to some of the HW names. We got to spend more time with some than others, but truly treasure every minute that we spent with our extended family.

Our friends, whom joined us on the cruise, were extremely impressed with the closeness of the group (knowing that many had met for the first time that week). They left with a deep appreciation of the support that this group offers to me and others. We made many great new lifetime friends throughout the week. I'm sure that our close friends will be asking us how you all are doing, and often.

This may have been our first GFMPH, but I assure you it will not be our last. This was a nice ice-breaker for us, and glad we got those first 5 minutes of awkwardness that Todd wrote about, out of the way. We are now anxious to make another gathering, maybe Florida, definitely Rochester.

Don
Posted 12/15/2013 9:25 PM (GMT -5)
Lee and I had an absolute blast and thank all of you for taking us in. We will be in Florida at Sonny's in March and hope to get to NY in the fall.

Good people find each other through adversity and thrive because of the relationships forged.

Again our thanks to Terry and Dianne for getting us together.
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