As strange as it may sound, even though I have never met Portee, I feel as though I have lost a member of my own family. We started conversing on Agoracom in 2007 and quickly became both mutual supporters and quite often combatants. I, being a Nova Scotian,was constantly impressed with his knowledge and understanding of this part of the world. It often seemed that he understood life here as well as I did.

Without a doubt,he was the mainstay of our group and it is hard to contemplate continuing on without him. You must understand that we " spoke" online almost every day for 7 years!.That is more than with almost anyone except for my wife.

We all had dreams of meeting in Las Vegas, celebrating our good fortune while drinking ripple and telling bigger and bigger lies!! Even though our dreams were often dashed, to say the least, Portee always kept our dreams on track and kept us believing in our goal of good fortune and meeting together as friends.

I have shed many tears thinking about the loss of the friend I have never met. I can only imagine how tragic a loss it must be for his real family.

Alex Blair will be fondly remembered for many years, but I will always think of him as my friend Portee44.

My sincerest condolences

Glenn Brown ( Rico )