I was just looking through some boxes of land shells from the 80's, and I remembered that Phil Poland had been with me on that occasion. We were collecting around a big stack of antique pavement bricks in my parents yard in south Tampa. 

I had told Phil about some Gastrocopta and other other small genera that I had just recently found there, which he wanted to see for himself. Dad came out, met Phil for the first time, and he started searching for micro-snails with us. Phil noticed that my father had a 1 inch long black spot on top of his head. He said "Mr. Vik, you should get that spot looked at, it looks suspicious." 

Dad went to the Doctor, who took a biopsy. It was melanoma. They removed the spot, 
which was very thin and had not spread to any other part of his body.

My Mom, brother, sister and myself had been bugging him to get it checked for years, with no success.
One short conversation with Phil, who he had known for all of five minutes, convinced him to take action.

Thank God for Phil! (Sorry, Phil, I know you were not a believer.) 

Pop was in his fifties then, and lived to be 89 when we lost him a little over a year ago.

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