Baskin In The Sun
When you've seen CBS News Correspondent Roberta Baskin on CBS This Morning, it has been to learn about her most recent consumer investigation. But now she is reporting on a more personal matter.
Since her father, Alan Baskin, 70, was suddenly stricken with pancreatic cancer in July, his friends and family have been trying to find a way to cope with his sudden illness.
Nick Griffin, a longtime family friend, found a way for Alan's family and friends to at least communicate their feelings and emotions. He created a living eulogy on the Internet.
The site has had a tremendous response with more than 3,000 visitors and many of them leaving behind messages of love and inspiration.
A side note: Baskin did not even know her father was alive until her mother confessed that her father had not died, as she had been told her entire life. But her mother had no idea what happened to him.
That confession led to a search through government documents to track down her dad. The search finally ended nearly 13 years ago with a phone call to Tortola, the British Virgin Islands, where her father had been living for many years.
Father and daughter have been happily reunited ever since. And Roberta also discovered that she had four brothers and sisters. Here is her report about the Web site dedicated to her father's life.
Most people would say their father is special, and I'm no different. But what I've found in the last few weeks is how many people agree with me.
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| Alan Baskin and wife Eva |
From an apartment in Miami Beach, my father is spending his last days reading what can best be described as fan mail.
"It's probably all these people sending me these love vibes and everything else that has pulled me along this far," says Alan.
Once a successful businessman in the states, he dropped out of the mainstream in 1969 and followed his dream: scuba diving. "13,000 dives I've done, and every one has gotten better," he says.
My father started Baskin in the Sun, a resort dive operation that he and wife Eva took to many Caribbean Islands, finally ending up in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.
Baskin in the Sun became a popular dive destination. During those 30 years, Alan met thousands of people, and lately he's heard from many of them agin through the Web site.
Among them is Betsy Archer, who lives in the Dominican Republic and took time out to write to Alan: "Seeing the ocean through your eyes led me to get a degree in oceanography."
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| The Baskin Web site |
"It just became amazing," says Griffin. "So many people feel so warmly about Alan, and it's all there. It's there for everybody to see." And what made such a simple idea bloom? "Alan Baskin," is Griffin's answer.
Griffin introduces the site with a quote from a letter Alan sent him in August: "I'm totally at peace with this thing and feel a contentment never felt before."
Adds Alan, "After all, I've done everything I wanted to do. So why not see what the next program is? And that's where I'm of to."
Alan's contagious philosophy has inspired messages from author George Plimpton, comedian David Brenner, and a familiar anchorman, Walter Cronkite, who wrote, "Your disdain for self pity and your zest for the great adventure ahead perhaps have played a greater part in all of our lives than you shall ever know."
The celebration of Alan's life via the Web made USA Today, the front page of the Miami Herald, and a wire service. Now Alan is getting messages from around the world.
From a radio talk show in Perth, Australia: "You'll never die. Too many people carry you around with them in their memory."
The response has been so overwhelming that the man who I know never has been at a loss for words, now is.
"Words fail me because it's so far beyond anything I ever even dreamed of," Alan Baskin says. "In affecting so many people's lives...positively. It's the most humbling experience of my life."
To visit the Web site, go to www.alanbaskin.net.