Yes, vggarcia, it was me who also noticed. But when you are just an Internet friend, you figure you can only go so far into really personal life. And I didn't really matter enough for him to open up a lot to me, but...well...I just didn't know he might be sick with something lingering. I don't know why this affects me the way it does but I've always been a softie (one of the reasons why my wife says she loves me). Sometimes, when I see the absence of someone, I wonder if I should take the "dark road" and ask...but I usually just wait to see if it's just a matter of a person being too busy. I sometimes wonder if a person reknown for posts who makes no posts has had something happen that we may never know about. Though I'm very saddened to hear about Billy, I'm glad there wasn't just silence. It would really be nice if someone would/could tell me where to send condolences. (my wife keeps asking me why I'm sad tonight and she doesn't understand he wasn't just a merchant)