From what i believe is Merlin's church bulletin in the town he lives in.

PRAYERS - FAITHFUL DEPARTED
Prayers for the dead is one of the greatest acts of charity we can perform. The following is a list of the names of members of St. ******* that have recent1y departed:

Waldemar ********, 08/26/25.

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Merlin was a extremely private man, so I only included his first name that he, personally, shared on this board a year or so ago. The rest of the information below he also shared. I'm sorry that I can't share anything other than what HE shared over the years piecemeal. He never gave me permission to share anything more.

He was 74, happily married, with 3 adult daughters, two of whom are twins, and 3 grandchildren.

Born and raised in NYC by Polish immigrants, he had one sister and they all lived in a small apartment in the lower east side of Manhattan. He raised his own family in a lovely single family home in NJ, where he lived the rest of his life.

Merlin was a CFO for a few companies, as well as a financial officer of 2 large, national bank offices in NYC. He had an office in the twin towers before accepting a position in a building nearby. He was on the street as the twin towers collapsed and lost many close friends there.

Merlin suffered from both COPD due to his lifelong smoking habit as well as advanced Myasthenia Gravis, which caused his degraded keyboard skills, difficulty posting, and eventual departure from posting on the board.

He was largely unable to type or use email or texting in the last year of his life, so we had limited contact since late 2024 when he abruptly stopped posting at all. By then he was only posting music videos and emailing minimalist responses until he stopped responding at all. I tried to stay in contact but it just wasn't possible.

I've missed him terribly as we'd been friends for nearly 2 decades and partners running this board for years. First with AJ & Donatello and later on with Pikes after Donatello died and A.J. left these boards entirely, moving over to Twitter with millions of others.

I've been watching and emailing for news of him periodically for the last year. Occasionally checking out his and his family's Facebook pages looking to see how he was doing. Never saw anything.

Today, Google sent me that late 2025church bulletin. It was loaded with so much to wander through. Then I caught sight of the tiny section with prayers for the recently departed.

So sad to have seen it. I'm not sure which is worse, knowing or wondering?

Merlin was a fun, kind, caring friend full of insight, good advice, information, and the wickedest** sense of humor. He made me laugh all the time. He was quite well informed and generous with great advice when asked - privately.

He showed me how to chill and not LET other people ruin my day or upset my apple cart by simply not accepting their insults (which I don't always succeed at when coming from people I care about and respect).

He never let insults penetrate him by refusing to accept them, recognizing his own strengths and weaknesses so letting insults from people whose opinions he didn't value roll off like a duck's back. That is how he lated posting on mongo's board for so long in spite of the hateful disrespect he got daily there. He found it amusing and had fun trolling them with juicy LW pieces he knew would set their hair ablaze. LOL


**Wickedest as in SO FUNNY with a quick wit and the ability to slice and dice with humor and no animosity included... except the occasional times when he was clearly angry or disgusted.