cryptor
Brownlow Medallist
- May 11, 2008
- 23,490
- 58,807
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
As many have noticed over the the last few months, one of our most active, long standing and quality members of this board has been unusually absent this year. Combining small pieces of information throughout his posting history I was able to track down his profile on Facebook and use what is publicly shared there to get in contact with a family member.
It's with great sadness that I pass on the news that Thaihawk has unfortunately passed away. I'm told that he was admitted to hospital in early January with "quite a few issues" (which I'm led to believe were likely cancer related) and that in mid-March he passed away.
Most regulars here would know that Thaihawk grew up in the Glenferrie area in the 1940's and bear witness to many a thrashing of Hawthorn throughout his youth. He was lucky in the sense that he got to watch Hawthorn transform from the easy-beat Mayblooms into the powerhouse Hawks of today.
The man we knew from his time on BigFooty was an elderly (late 70's), Australian expat spending his retirement years living in Northern Thailand with his Thai family after having remarried later in life. He taught ESL (English as a Second Language) in Thailand for some years before fully retiring to enjoy spending all his time with his wife and his 3 year old granddaughter (who is now a keen Hawk fan herself). We also knew that his wife was fighting a very tough battle with cancer the last couple years and that she sadly lost that fight late last year. No doubt the pain and stress of that loss contributed to his own ill health.
Thaihawk has a long posting history here and it is rich with fantastic, first-hand accounts of the early days of Hawthorn from the late 1940's through until the modern history of recent years. With Thaihawk's background in teaching English his affinity for writing quality posts has been very evident, and I'm sure many reading this would have been schooled by him on the appropriate use of grammar at one point or another! Throughout his tenure on these boards he was consistently adding plenty of quality to discussions with his sharp wit, sage advice and the occasional grumbly, old man rant.
While this is terribly sad news I think we should all be happy in the knowledge that Thaihawk led such a long and happy life and that he got to see the rise to power of his beloved football club. Experiencing all 13 wonderful premiership wins to date, and topped off with a historical threepeat!
Rest In Peace, Thaihawk
It's with great sadness that I pass on the news that Thaihawk has unfortunately passed away. I'm told that he was admitted to hospital in early January with "quite a few issues" (which I'm led to believe were likely cancer related) and that in mid-March he passed away.
Most regulars here would know that Thaihawk grew up in the Glenferrie area in the 1940's and bear witness to many a thrashing of Hawthorn throughout his youth. He was lucky in the sense that he got to watch Hawthorn transform from the easy-beat Mayblooms into the powerhouse Hawks of today.
The man we knew from his time on BigFooty was an elderly (late 70's), Australian expat spending his retirement years living in Northern Thailand with his Thai family after having remarried later in life. He taught ESL (English as a Second Language) in Thailand for some years before fully retiring to enjoy spending all his time with his wife and his 3 year old granddaughter (who is now a keen Hawk fan herself). We also knew that his wife was fighting a very tough battle with cancer the last couple years and that she sadly lost that fight late last year. No doubt the pain and stress of that loss contributed to his own ill health.
Thaihawk has a long posting history here and it is rich with fantastic, first-hand accounts of the early days of Hawthorn from the late 1940's through until the modern history of recent years. With Thaihawk's background in teaching English his affinity for writing quality posts has been very evident, and I'm sure many reading this would have been schooled by him on the appropriate use of grammar at one point or another! Throughout his tenure on these boards he was consistently adding plenty of quality to discussions with his sharp wit, sage advice and the occasional grumbly, old man rant.
While this is terribly sad news I think we should all be happy in the knowledge that Thaihawk led such a long and happy life and that he got to see the rise to power of his beloved football club. Experiencing all 13 wonderful premiership wins to date, and topped off with a historical threepeat!
Rest In Peace, Thaihawk
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