For anyone who cares - an update on Merlin

Was taken to hospital late yesterday afternoon, after suffering a TIA (Transient Ischaemic Attack aka mini-stroke for anyone here doesn't know about such things). This is now the third. It has been building for a few weeks now. And like lightning strikes when things have built up to the level needed to trigger one.

I am also aware of what else has been going on here lately in that direction but also aware that he gave an awful lot of himself to support a lot of people here when they needed it. And that as he accepted others for their 'differences' and their 'rants' but also recognized those for the pressure people are under.

It's quite up to anyone here if they choose to continue to attack him when in ill health but also remember that when you needed help he was there doing it for you. Everyone falls on hard times in life, and not everyone is treated fairly throughout them. Merlin has been treated pretty harshly, severely in life and for no real good reason. It's a pity those who drove him into this health situation right now didn't have the same sincerity to admit to what they did to him two years ago. And how it has affected him so severely, it has now endangered his health. What he sacrificed for those people, and his payback was all this.

Incidentally, as I am aware of what kind of response this thread will now illicit so it's aimed at the more grown up people who DO treat people fairly - and not those who go behind people's backs, slinging manure like it's fashionable - and also appreciate that when people are under a lot of stress, from goading, and a shed load of pressure that sometimes they overreact. Merlin lives by himself BTW, and has no one - no family living with him and has coped terrifically well considering all the stuff that has come his way in the last 4 years.

This is all I wanted to say. And if you choose to attack this thread after this message has been relayed then ... that is entirely up to yourselves.

But also appreciate that when someone has given a lot of themselves to a group of people quite willingly, when they are also in their most severest of hours that a little bit of compassion is sometimes needed. Just the same as any of you would expect in return.

For those who don't know this here, but he's done a lot of good for people throughout his life, never expected anything back. Except fairness.

Like I said, if you want to attack this thread now because of what some of you perceive has been going on - the labelling etc etc, the finger pointing - and not considering a third option, not just leaping to the most appropriate that fits because life isn't like that and I would imagine for some here they already know this.

And as a close family member of his, I will only take note of people who have something constructive to say, not destructive. I have only now intervened on that basis to protect him, exactly like anyone else here would their own family.

He was one of the good guy's who unfortunately, things have taken a toll on. I cannot stop any of you from seeing him for the opposite because of recent posts here but have the good grace to stop laying into someone who is really at a very low ebb. Same as you'd expect. Just think a little.