To my dear friend Jeff Vickers...

Thanks much Curby. Every year we hold the Jeff Vickers Memorial Open golf tournament http://www.jeffvickersmemorial.org/jvmo.php at a nice public club that myself and my golfing buds, Jeff, John and Steve, have golfed at many times. The outing benefits Leukemia research through Jeff's Memorial Chapter... http://www.jeffvickersmemorial.org/

All of Jeff's large family and many of his closest friends, gather to pay tribute to him, laugh and play golf. A lunch and dinner is served and a silent auction is held to bid on specially donated items. Some in the past two years included: a guitar signed by Neil Young (that one is now mine ), autographed black and white photo of Gale Sayers during a game, many signed items from the Green Bay Packers and lots more. All monies that are made from this outing go directly to the charity. There are other events during the year too. This year will be the third annual outing and we all are looking forward to it. It's the highlight of every Summer for me.

The photo you see on Jeff's website which is the same one on my avatar, was a picture I took one Memorial Day when Jeff, John, Steve and I played a golf course by the name of Deertrak after Jeff had recovered from his first bout with Leukemia. I was the last one to play golf with Jeff before he got sick the second time. It was just the two of us with one walk on fellow who joined us and as usual, Jeff beat the pants off of me. Afterwards, I asked Jeff how his numbers (blood work) was doing and he said, "Great! They are thinking about checking me now only every 6 months. However, I've got a little virus right now, but I'll shake it!" The "virus" that Jeff spoke of was the start of his second illness and we never played again together.

The last time I spoke with Jeff was the week before his death when he called me from home (he had retired) after recovering from his second bout with Leukemia (we thought) to make sure to remind me that I and my wife Dawn were invited again to his home to join Steve and his wife along with John and his wife to watch the the third round of The Masters golf tournament, which we did every year together. Unfortunately, that day we were flying out with our children on their first plane ride to Cancun, our first time out of the Country together. Jeff told me it was not a problem, that we would have plenty of other years to enjoy third rounds together. And then he spoke his last words to me, Jeff said, "Hey Bud, when you get back from Cancun, please call me as soon as you can because, I am itching to get out there and play!" I, of course, told Jeff I would and so we hung up...Jeff passed away on Thursday of the following week. This Saturday's third round was on, but I really didn't/couldn't really watch it...I miss him so much still...Had Jeff lived, this would have been our 30th year of playing golf together.

Many thanks to my dear friend Aaron Williams for mentioning Jeff during the song "My Turn" that night, it meant the world to me!

Roy