Thank You, Tim, For a Spanking Good Time!

(Tim's blog logo, taken from Secret Spanko's tribute post 

which was published after Tim had announced that

he had to stop blogging because of his bad health condition.)

(Update 2012/08/29: It just turned out that the message about Tim's passing was nothing but a horrible hoax! Someone hacked Tim's blogging account and posted a message which Tim had written during his stay in hospital when he wasn't sure how much time he would have left. Tim is fine and the treatment at the hospital obviously also bought him more time, even though his cancer can't be cured. I am leaving this post as it is, because Ludwig and I don't change old posts even if the circumstances have changed. And everything which I have written about Tim and his blog remains true, anyway. I am extremely glad to have Tim back and to know that he is alive and (given his health condition) well!)

Last Saturday our fellow blogger Tim the Tum passed away as a result of cancer. He had written a very touching goodbye post which was published by his wife a few days later together with the information that Tim seemingly died peacefully. The sad news and Tim's last post, full of his usual wit, moved me deeply, and so I decided to write a tribute post to him.

I have linked to Tim's site "A spanking good time" in earlier posts. In case you don't know his blog and style of writing, Tim's introduction on his profile page says it all: 48 years old, fat and balding; more hair on my chin than my head sadly. Somewhat puzzled wife and 2 genetically manic teenage kids, who both still speak to me (don't know why). I love adult spanking, but don't believe in it as a tool for raising children. Everything here is fiction, and the views given may not reflect those of the management.

Tim started his blog in November 2011. I must have discovered it around the beginning of this year and wrote my first-ever comment on Tim's blog in January, on a post about Paternalism in Spanking. Being a switch, Tim was not only into M/F spankings, but into F/M and F/F as well. And so he fought the view held by some narrow-minded spankos that M/F was the only "natural" and therefore legitimate gender constellation in spanking. M/M spankings did not hold any appeal for Tim, which is understandable for a straight guy. But unlike others, he understood that they had a great appeal for some fellow spankos like me, and he didn't confuse his personal preferences with any morale judgements about what should or shouldn't be shown in spanking clips or on spanking sites.

Tim was an avid spanking video fan and consequently published several reviews of spanking sites, among them famous ones like Punished Brats and Dreams Of Spanking and rather unusual ones likes the Japanese site Hand-Spanking. He also published many interviews, not only with well-known spanking models like Pandora Blake and Leia-Ann Woods, but also with several tops such as David Pierson, The Able Amsterdam Authoritarian Mike and Thomas Cameron. Tim interviewed fellow bloggers, too, Chross as well as Secret Spanko. And he wrote several fictional stories which you can also find on his blog.

In July this year, Tim went to see a professional spankee / spanker for a one-on-one session for the very first time. I already linked to part one and part two of his very interesting report in my post Professional Service. What touched me the most about his adventure, though, was that he went there with his wife's blessing, even though this seemingly wasn't easy for her. Tim addressed this issue in a separate post which illustrated how much the two of them had talked about the whole idea and how they had found a way that worked for both of them. The honesty between Tim and his wife, the mutual care and her brave decision to let him go on his adventure with her blessing showed how great and admirable their love relationship was.

There is another post which I would like to point out to you. It's about how Tim came to love his bottom and his body despite the fact that their shapes weren't perfect from his point of view. In my opinion, learning to love oneself unconditionally and to treat oneself with respect can be quite difficult, but is a very important precondition for a happy life. Tim's post is an example of how to do it.

Unfortunately, Ludwig didn't do much blog reading during the last year, otherwise he would have greatly enjoyed Tim's writing! Ludwig was very touched and impressed by Tim's last post and he had to laugh about his wonderful humour when I read Tim's profile text to him. Being fellow video buffs, the two of them surely would have had lots to talk about if Ludwig had spent more time in the kinky online community at the time Tim wrote his blog. Tim's illness and his bravery definitely touched both of us.

Maybe Tim's story moves me even more because of my own experiences with losing my mother to cancer only a few years ago. She was just a bit older than Tim and like him, she was a fighter and tried to make the best out of the time she had left. So, I know how it feels to lose a parent to cancer, which is why Tim's children are so much in my thoughts. It must be even harder for them. I was at least an independent adult when it happened. And ever since my mother died, I wondered how horrible it must be to lose one's beloved partner, which is why his wife, who wrote that she is most probably going to be around reading some spanking blogs, is deeply in my thoughts as well.

Within the last years, I stopped being a practising Christian and became an atheist, realising that I neither believe in God nor in the existence of an immortal soul or any kind of afterlife. Tim didn't believe in these things, either, which was why I admired him all the more for his strength and for having kept his trademark wit in the face of a fatal disease.

I had planned to include Tim's blog in our blog roll for some time. I wanted to add several blogs at a time, though, and introduce them in a special post. Sadly, I waited too long, looking for other blogs which I could include as well. So I decided to devote this post to a special fellow blogger named Tim and his wonderful blog. I know that the stats were very important for Tim and that he was sad at times because he didn't get as many comments as he had hoped for. Tim's blog was a labour of love and he wanted to reach people with it. I'm sure that he would be very happy about everyone who is inspired by one of his posts, even now that his blog has become a historical document.

Tim addressed his readers as his friends in his last post, so I guess that it will be okay with him if I do the same. It's difficult to find the right words, but I definitely can say, Tim, my friend, that your writing and your story deeply touched me and made me laugh and cry. I loved your openness, your honesty and your wit. Thank you very much, Tim, for having provided me and all your readers with a Spanking Good Time! You are already sadly missed and will remain in my memories.