Publisher's Synopsis
Dear Sweeties is a collection of email letters that Tom Cuthbertson wrote to a huge list of people who knew and loved him. He called these people his Support Sweeties, and he began every letter with "Dear Sweeties." Tom described in detail his life with pancreatic cancer, from diagnosis, through following an alternative treatment that seemed promising for some time, and ending with his preparation for death. Tom was irrepressible, funny, curious, adventurous. His determination to pack as much life as he could into every day is evident in his letters. They are full of hope and humor as well as wrenching sadness. The book includes a small selection of the 2,200 replies Tom received (and those were only the ones he saved), a few short stories about Tom at different times in his life, and a final letter from his wife about his passing. Tom Cuthbertson was born in San Mateo, California, in 1945. At ten, he got his first bicycle, and his love for cycling lasted his whole life. He received degrees from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco State. A practicing Quaker, he was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and did his alternative service in the terminal ward of the Santa Cruz County Hospital. Tom's Anybody's Bike Book was the first publication of Ten Speed Press. He wrote a number of other how-to books for Ten Speed. He also wrote technical documentation for various software companies. Tom loved bodysurfing, telling stories, Scottish country dance, writing, and playing with children of all ages. He died in 2005, eleven months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. His ashes were scattered around the standing stone circle he built in a meadow overlooking the Monterey Bay.
