When things at the Tavern began to slow down, I really, wanted to tell everyone about what was going on in my personal life that was dragging me away from the Tavern so much but I never did because I thought nobody wanted to read that stuff on a site devoted to WordPress. Shortly after the peak of WPTavern, my father-in-law was diagnosed with prostate cancer only it was in his system for so long, we discovered that it had metastasized into his bones. I helped my wife, (at the time fiancee) take care of her father, drive him to appointments and lift him up and down stairs. At about this time, I discovered they owned a second home which was rented out to a guy who damn near ruined the place.

I spent a ton of time over at this other house to clean it up because at the time, we thought this was going to be the house we would move into. But in 2010 he passed away. This left my fiancee and her sister by themselves with two houses to take care of. Needless to say, I didn't have much of a chance with the Tavern after that. I had no money to hire writers and I couldn't spend hours in front of the PC anymore.

I'm not sure how much longer I could have chugged along trying to make money here and there with WordPress but the personal stuff certainly ruined my momentum and any chance I had at taking the site to the next level. Once the Tavern slowed way down, that is when WPCandy hit its stride and became the cool place.