This blog is being closed down soon. I don’t have the energy to maintain it. I have had a major kidney disease for about 50 years and after a transplant from my brother 30 years ago it’s now fading away so I have been on dialysis for 2 years. That is proving very tedious and tiresome so in the new year I will probably volunteer to stop it.
One advantage of kidney dialysis is that it gives you the ability to choose when to die. If I stop dialysis I may die within a couple of weeks. But it’s not quite as simple as that! There are lots of people who want to give me advice and forms to fill out re “End of Life Care”.
In addition I need to tidy up my financial affairs and ensure my executors know where to find things.
I am beginning to envy those people who drop dead from a stroke or heart attack.
Anyway as I shall reach the age of 80 in January and have achieved most things I wanted to in life, commiserations are unnecessary.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson )
You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.
Dear Roger
As instructed I will not send you commiserations, just thanks for your very interesting thoughts and analysis which I have been reading for about the last 5 years. I don’t always agree but I have enjoyed being challenged to think more deeply about things.
I hope things go as well as they ever can do in such circumstances and I wish you and your family well.
Jonathan Ewbank
I’m so sorry to hear it and thanks for your comment and advice over the ,the past few years.
May you move on to a much better and far kinder World.
Roger, it has aways been interesting reading your blogs, and you are also to be congratulated and warmly thanked for your efforts on behalf of private shareholders. With best wishes, Jeremy Prescott
This makes me very sad to read. I first learned about you from my father Richard Vessey who was a huge fan. He bought each of us kids your book and made us read it. I still remember the analogy of digging holes with a teaspoon. Since then Ive read your blog, every single post. I really hope there is something that can be done – but if you are saying this then you know there isn’t. Thanks for all you’ve done for society and the world. You’ve made a massive impact on me and many others.
Dear Roger,
Probably like everyone else, I’m shocked, but also full of admiration to read your message, which a friend passed on to me.
I can still remember us locking horns on stage at an investor event – over shorting I think it might have been, maybe Globo, or Quindell, or something like that, where you made robust arguments against shorters putting out dossiers intended to undermine investor confidence in a company. It was definitely a spirited debate, and we had a friendly chat afterwards, despite disagreeing.
You’ve certainly been one of the biggest characters in my investing life, always full of interesting, independent opinions. I remember you challenging the wisdom of “top slicing” big risers too, saying why on earth would I sell, when I should be running my winners?
Also all your work for ShareSoc & the investing community generally has helped a lot of people.
And you’ve rattled quite a few peoples’ cages too over the years, usually with good reason! 😉
Wishing you all the best,
Paul Scott.
Dear Roger,
Just wanted to express my gratitude for your hard work in creating ShareSoc and doing most of the work, in the early years.
You will be missed and rembered.
Wishing you peace.
Mark Bentley
Thank you for all your support in making ShareSoc what it has become today. It is a privilege to continue your work in the organisation for the next stage of its journey
Thank you Roger for the often thought-provoking posts. I really admire the ‘no victim here’ attitude and envy your ‘end of life’ approach; you are in control and you are pleased with the life you had. I will remember those words and hope to feel similar when it’s my turn.
Roger, I’m very sorry to hear this.
Thank you for the huge contributions you have made to Sharesoc and to the investing community generally, over so many years. You have always been generous in sharing your extensive knowledge on various topics.
You will be sorely missed.
With best wishes to you and your family.
Mark Lauber