Our family Thanksgiving took a devastating turn this past weekend when my father-in-law succumbed to his long battle against Alzheimer’s Disease. His last meal was turkey and mashed potatoes here in our home, with his family all around him. He was 82.

My husband and I have spent the past few days with our siblings, nieces and nephews telling stories about all the wonderful family memories we can remember. More than a few times, the phrase “I wish I’d only taken the time to…” came up in conversation.

The comments reminded me of something charter broker Leann Morris Pliske of The Sacks Group said when I interviewed her for my new book Have the Whole Boat: The Insider’s Guide to Private Yacht Charter Vacations: “I just recently had a slew of first-time charterers. One of them was a 60th birthday, and he was gathering multiple generations of his family. He just found us in a magazine and didn’t know what he was doing. I love those phone calls. … These people came back and they were just flabbergasted. The guy said, ‘God, I wish I hadn’t waited until I was 60 to try this.’”

I was reminded this weekend that it’s never too late to think about making wonderful family memories. They sure are comforting to have when sadness inevitably intrudes on our otherwise peaceful lives.

It’s the beginning of a long, food-filled holiday weekend here in the States, which means I’ll be up to my ears in turkey, cranberry sauce and cousins within a few hours.

I’ll see you back here on Monday to begin another week’s worth of regular daily blog posts. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving!

My friend Reggie pointed out a great website to me that puts the whole “cruise ship/disease outbreak” picture into perspective.

The site is run by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it has an entire page devoted to reporting illness outbreaks onboard cruise ships. You can view it by clicking here.

Just be prepared to be thoroughly grossed out. The Carnival incident I blogged about earlier this week isn’t even the most recent outbreak on the list, and there are about 30 incidents listed so far for the year 2006, spanning all cruise lines and ships.

Again, the contrast with private yachts couldn’t be clearer. When you, your family and your friends are the only ones on the boat, it’s impossible to become just one more suffering statistic among thousands.