Impending Passing of Leicaphilia's Tim Vanderweert

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Evergreen States

Francine Pierre Saget (they/them)
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Two days ago, Tim Vanderweert of the Leicaphilia blog announced what would be his final post. At the time of writing he was waiting to die from septic shock and had days to live. For those who haven't kept up, he's been fighting cancer the past few years. I don't know if he's still alive at the time I'm posting this. I've enjoyed his blog a great deal since discovering it. A sharp cookie, with an acid tongue. I've missed his posts as they grew more and more infrequent. I'll miss them even more now that there won't be another one.

http://leicaphilia.com/all-good-things-must-end/
 
Dreadful news.... seems to be alot of it as of late, Dying & Death
So Enjoyed his crazy fun musings,
Peace & Love to Tim on his next Journey ~
 
Oh no. I've been reading his blog for years, making the occasional comment, but I hadn't looked at the blog for a few months. His last post was a few days ago, so he may have already passed. What a terrible loss of a thoughtful, intelligent human. I hope his final hours are/were peaceful and gentle.
 
I liked his approach. Tim made me reconsider the tonality I'd become used to from film and helped my personal work go digital and progress. I've been sending thoughts and am glad to know others have been doing the same.

“It is the heaviest stone that melancholy can throw at a man, to tell him he is at the end of his nature” Sir Thomas Browne, Urne Burial.

Marty
 
This is devastating news.

Tim and I are the same age. When he posted a self-portrait as a teen-ager, I noted the use of an Argus/Cosina STL1000. Which is also my first SLR, bought when I was 14. I could identify with him on a number of planes.

I've corresponded with Tim, enjoyed his site.
Rebuilt his LTM Sonnar 5cm F1.5, he insisted on paying. I got even and included a J-3 in the box when returning the Sonnar. I remember why I sent him that particular J-3, it was made in 1958, and was shimmed for Nikon. He had bought an S3, and was born in 1958.

He is a brave man going into this with the attitude he has.
 
Tim is/was one of a kind. A very talented writer, an excellent photographer, skilled with a quip and also a successful attorney in North Carolina who specialized in DUI cases. I loved "Leicaphilia" and I am proud to own his book "Car Sick". He says the site may continue and I certainly hope it does. I still enjoy going through the archives and reading his posts. Except for his posts on philosophers...omg! Those give me headaches and I've told him so. He didn't care, he enjoyed posting about everything. He did spur me to buy several books by these old dead guys but my eyes cross when I try to read them. He enjoyed befuddling people.
 
Canyongazer said:
Ackk!
True, but, ...Ackk!
Click to expand...

You are obviously younger than me. After a while one's mortality is about as exciting as shaving. Paradoxically it is just part of life. Tonight, tomorrow night or a year from now. It is inevitable. Obviously easier for me to accept than for you. That will probably change for you. Not changing is dreadful, to live in constant angst about the inevitable. In short, all of us only have today.
 
I'm going to really miss Tim. Been reading some of his articles on the Sonnar I fixed up for him, and his articles on the Nikons. Reread some of our Emails.

Thought all was going well from his previous post. Was not expecting things would go downhill so fast. Neither did he. Glad he got a big trip in before this hit.
 
Canyongazer said:
Really?...I'll be 79 next month.
Had quadruple heart by pass in April '21.
Now I have bacterial infection in my right lung.
If it's going to "change for me" it better do it soon. 😉
Click to expand...

I am not sure how you expect change. Acceptance of one's mortality reduces it as a problem. Man, I could buy the ranch anytime now. If life were fair I would be dead as I have not always been a choirboy and I am lucky not to have hard time to do. I am lucky not to have been killed. But for some strange reason here I am. I had lunch today with a lady friend, a friend. We shared about all the friends we have had who are now gone, some of them long gone. Yet we are here, chugging along and enjoying our lives a great deal. I have the usual heart and circulatory problems and my mind, what is left of it, is slowly becoming mush. Stairs are an effort. Yet I enjoy each and every day. I take photos and play with the cameras. It gives me pleasure. I have a Schipperke who may not be the most spoiled dog in the county but he has to be in the top five. Like most Schipperkes he is a pain in the butt. He is also a great little guy. I have had him for fourteen years now. He is a rescue. I got him out of a dope house when he was four months old and he was with three Pit Bulls. Yup, he was a bit jumpy.

I have a roof over my head, food to eat, a good bed to sleep in and good friends. My bills are all paid and I have no debt. I can piss money off on cameras and toys associated with cameras. I have a 2CV. I can eat out with friends and travel whenever I want. My health is alright. I have a good education with an MA from a fine Canadian university which is as much a curse as a blessing. Often I wish I had not been this well educated. FWIW I was treated like a rented mule in grad school. Thankfully they knew more than I. And they subsidized my education, me, a foreigner. Worse, a US'er. The worst kind of foreigner. ;o)

Yes, if life were fair I would be dead. I am grateful that life is not fair. I wish you all better luck than I and that you win the lottery two weeks running.
 
Judge Holden said:
Two days ago, Tim Vanderweert of the Leicaphilia blog announced what would be his final post.
Click to expand...
Thank you for posting this. Although this was the first that I heard of TV and Leicaphilia, he was clearly a prolific blogger and apparently a likeable person, if cynical about Leica's contrived image, and those who lap it up without a king-sized grain of salt. I wonder how he'd like this eulogy given by Monty Python's John Cleese, on behalf of fellow Python Graham Chapman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkxCHybM6Ek
 
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