User talk:Gamling

Welcome!

Hello Henry, and welcome to Tolkien Gateway! I hope you like the place and choose to join our work. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

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Welcome

Nice to have you on board! Hope you will enjoy editing on Tolkien Gateway! --Morgan 22:53, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Seconded! A pleasure to have you around Gamling. I don't suppose you still have any pictures of that scroll? --Hyarion 01:06, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Well, I still have the scroll but I haven't photographed the whole thing. Perhaps that's a project I ought to do. If I do though the next suggestion will be to post it and I'd need some instructions on how and where to do so. —Unsigned comment by Gamling (talk • contribs).

Just let us know if you need any help, I'm sure there could be a place for images of the scroll here on TG.--Morgan 17:57, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Welcome from me too! :) If you need any help in getting to grips with using the wiki software feel free to ask me, Hyarion, Morgan, Mith, Ederchil or Amroth. -- KingAragorn  talk  contribs  edits  email  18:21, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Welcome, hopely you will have a good time here. --Amroth 18:25, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Letters

Look at all those blue links! I just wanted to congratulate you on all your hard work on those letters. The section is an invaluable addition to TG and I'm sure a great many people will appreciate the time you spent on it. --Hyarion 23:48, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for the congratulations Hyarion, but there is still one more, the epistolary Fastitocalon - Letter 131 - which has as its "summary" just the head note and nothing of the body of the text. I have begun working on it but this one is going to take a bit of time. -- Gamling 00:02, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

I second that Sage 08:02, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Great work, Gamling! It'll be interesting to see your next project on TG! --Morgan 10:29, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Nice Work! I actually didn't see that you were already this far. Now people who haven't purchased the letters (I for example) can finally find out what Tolkien wrote in these :) I also second Morgan about your next peolple (I like beer, by the way :P ). --Amroth 15:11, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

I have just finished the summary of Letter 131 (9 pages in Word, out of 17 pages in "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien", out of 41 pages in the original) so now the Letters are "done" (except for edits).

Referencing HoMe

If possible, it would be great if you could also add page references to the volumes in The History of Middle-earth. All current US/UK editions (save those published by DelRey) have the same pagination. I personally always try to do this, since it's time-consuming to track specific statements in long chapters or sections.--Morgan 01:08, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Very good, I shall include page number references. I didn't know that all those editions used the same numbering. --Gamling 18:12, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

What Happened

To my friends at Tolkien Gateway: On Nov. 27th my wife died suddenly. We all know how much J.R.R. and Edith loved each other; our relationship was just as loving. Right now, on Dec. 1st, I am still getting my bearings. I have a river of friends and family that have been supporting me and grieving with me. I will return to editing on Tolkien Gateway in the future but after 24 years of a wonderful marriage it will take me some time to recover. --Gamling 07:30, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

I'm very sorry to hear about it, my condolences to you.--Morgan 07:54, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

I am frightfully and sincerely sorry to hear this dreadful news - of course, I am sure that Tolkien Gateway is the last thing on your mind right now. My condolences to you and your family, and I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that we'll be thinking of you in this incredibly difficult time. --Mith (Talk/Contribs/Edits) 09:52, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

I am very sorry to hear that, my thoughts and prayers are with you in this difficult very time. -- KingAragorn  talk  contribs  edits  email  09:59, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

I am very sorry to hear this, my condolences to you, your family and your friends. --Amroth 13:40, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

This is terrible news. My condolences. My prayers are with you. --CaptainRolly 10:22, 2 December 2011 (EST)

What Happened Next

Before my wife died we had Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Besides my wife and son, my wife's mother, my wife's brother, and his wife were also here. The brother and his wife both have bipolar disorder (used to be called manic-depressive personality). The brother's way of "handling" his life is to deny that he has any problem, refuse to take medicine or therapy, and to be a control freak. His wife's way of "coping" is to be a mouse, having no personality, depending on everyone to take care of her, yet harboring hostility towards all. My wife's mother has a long history of denial of any problems. They were still here when my wife died.

The brother descended into a bipolar fit. He began ordering people around, trying to control the plans for the memorial. He didn't sleep night after night and gradually began acting more crazy. His wife did nothing but expect to be waited upon. The mother, seeing that her son was having an "episode", gave him a 5-minute talk about inappropriate behavior and then flew home, leaving me and my family to deal with her insane son and daughter-in-law. After he demanded that I (5 days after my wife's death) take him and his wife to Disneyland and then called me incompetent, friends stepped in and took them to their house, hoping that he change of location would calm him down. It did not. After two days of even more erratic behavior they got him to UCLA Medical Center where the doctors took very little time to admit him for 72 hours of observation, followed by 7 days of incarceration. The brother had ordered his wife to be committed along with him, but the doctors said she did not have to be in the hospital and so the brother told his wife that he never wanted to see her again. She limply hung around, waiting for people to take care of her (as always) until she was sent home to Idaho. After the memorial for my wife the mother, who had flown back for the ceremony, got her son and flew with him to Idaho. I will also mention that both the brother and his wife said a number of nasty things about my son and me, mostly behind our backs (but which we learned of later).

To say that this situation added to my stress is quite an understatement. The crazy brother kept threatening to get discharged and come to the memorial where he certainly would have disrupted the proceedings. I kept being drawn in to dealing with him while I was trying to deal with everything else. In the meantime, my wife's sister has been a big help but the rest of her family have not. My wife's stepfather, stepbrother, and stepsister did not call, write, or come to the memorial, and have not contacted me in any way in the last six weeks. I have decided to withdraw from that family.

Since my wife's death I've been very busy. Our finances are very complicated. My wife, a certified public accountant, took care of everything, which means I am relearning all of the details of household finances. The funeral arrangements took time; applying for death certificates took time; dealing with visiting friends and family took time; and so on. Thus I've been absent from Tolkien Gateway for many weeks. On Jan. 15th my son returns to college and I'll be alone, which is when I will be free to begin making contributions again. I won't be able to make so many so fast given my new responsibilities.