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Letter to the editor

Cherished memories, a last chat

By Len Bonifield, Special to the Times
Published August 4, 2007

This is going to be the most difficult column I have written, since it will be the last column I will write. All good things must come to an end, and this certainly has been a good thing. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this column for the past four years. This final column will have little to do with manufactured housing because it will be mostly about me.

As some of you already know, I am losing my battle with cancer. I have fought off this terrible disease for over 17 years, since my first bout with cancer of the head, neck, mouth and tongue. In the intervening years I have had cancer of the prostate, lung, skin and now esophagus. The cancer has now spread to the bone and lymph nodes, so from here on out all treatments, if any, will be palliative in nature.

I had hoped to struggle through and still be able to write this column for several more months, but it is just too difficult to sit at the computer, do the required research, and conduct interviews.

Please do not mourn for me. I consider myself one of the luckiest people. I will soon reach my 74th birthday. For the most part they have been wonderful years. I met my wife, JoAnne, almost 35 years ago, and she has made my life complete and very happy. We have made a great team. We worked together in the insurance industry. We founded a very successful, internationally known executive search firm that we operated for 23 years before we sold the firm to retire to Florida.

My son, a physician in New Jersey, has given me wonderful grandchildren. My daughter, physically and mentally retarded since birth, is doing well after the doctors predicted she would not live to the age of 10.

Why, you ask, does that make me so lucky? Well, I am a guy who had only a high school education and not the best at that. I was much more interested in playing baseball than studying. I dreamed of playing in the majors, but I made it only to Triple A before an injury cut that dream short. My next job was digging ditches for the county highway department in summer and plowing snow in winter.

I began a career in life insurance and ultimately became president of what was then the 215th largest company out of 1,700 such companies. Not too bad for a ditch digger with only a high school education.

You are the most wonderful audience a columnist could have. Your letters, your e-mails, your telephone calls have repeatedly provided all the motivation a columnist could ask for. Your comments, criticisms and thoughts have provided all the incentive a writer could want.

There are so many to say thanks to: the staff of the Florida Manufactured Housing Association, the Federation of Manufactured Home Owners, and all the homeowners associations that asked me to speak to their members. The reception I received at each of those venues was magnificent. I estimate that I have spoken before more than 50 groups over the past four years.

I have had a wonderful life that is coming to a close. We all will reach the same point I am confronted with; mine is just a little more predictable. Thanks for being loyal readers of this column. I hope I have provided you with information that will make your life in manufactured housing better.

You can write to Len Bonifield at elb@gate.net or 2914 Dollar Bonnet Lane, Lakeland, FL 33810. Please include your e-mail and mailing address. Len Bonifield is a manufactured home resident and a former member and officer of the Lakeland area board of the Federation of Manufactured Home Owners.

[Last modified August 2, 2007, 15:10:36]