................Having read all the e-mails on Patrick's death, and
about the great influence Ruth and Patrick had on the Wash. birding
community, I thought I might a note of my own.
................I never had the privilege of ever speaking or meeting
with Patrick and Ruth. However, I immensely enjoyed and learned from the
description of their birding travels and expertise and their photos on
the internet.
................In fact, a number of years ago, when I was still
consistently going to Long Beach Peninsula for bird-watching, I read
about their visits to Tokeland Marina and points north to Ocean Shores.
It was the description of the Marbled Godwits and the Bat-tailed Godwits
and other shorebirds observed there at Toleland that interested me, and
I decided to visit this area. I since then have become"hooked" on
frequently coming to the Bay Center to Westport area , with its Willapa
Hills, Willapa Bay, and the ocean area from North Cove to Westport a
most beautiful area with plenty of birds and wildlife. (Ocean Shores,
which they loved, is a bit too far away for me for a few days trip,
though I was there once a number of years ago).
...............So.....little did Ruth and Patrick know the far-reaching
influence they had, and will continue to have on people they have never
met or known about. Patrick tormented soul is now at rest with his
almighty Creator----looking down on all of us and reaching down to
everyone of us to comfort us and, especially his mother Ruth, in our
sadness. Ruth, please keep up birding as viewing God's feathered
creatures is inspiring and soothing to the mind and soul, and.......
your son will walk with you always---everywhere, not seen, but next to
you----touching you...loving you and all the rest of us who loved you
and Patrick----until that day, which all of us will eventually reach,
where you will be with him again above those pearly white clouds overhead.

.............Gerald Hamilton
Brush Prairie, Wash
gerald at e-z.net