After a few hours fishing on the Sea Witch, a 24-foot wooden boat he built 24 years ago with a friend, Holt returned home with a sore finger.

"As the day progressed the pain in Al's finger began to worsen, but he shrugged it off," said his wife Linda. But by 9:00 p.m., the pain became unbearable and the couple headed for Tobey Hospital in Wareham, where the doctor gave him antibiotics suspecting it was gout.

A few hours later that night, however, the whole hand had swelled up and turned black, and the couple went back to the hospital. The doctor this time said he had never seen anything like it, and Holt was rushed to the New England Medical Center in Boston.

At first, doctors thought it was an infection. But when they opened his hand the doctors found something much more deadly: a bacteria eating the tissue around his muscle.

Racing against time to stay ahead of the rapidly spreading bacteria, doctors performed surgery four times on Holt over the next 24 hours, first removing his hand, then his arm, then portions of his back and side. At this point it appeared that the bacteria had been stopped, but days later the flesh-eating infection invaded his bloodstream and attacked his vital organs.

"Al was on life support," said Linda, "and I made the decision to take him off... It was only a matter of time." He was taken off life support on July 30 and died 38 hours later. "Al was kept anesthetized the entire time he was in the hospital... He never woke up. The pain would have been unbearable," she said.

Exactly how Holt, the father of five, contracted the bacteria is unclear. Most likely, Holt was infected by a contaminated fish through an open hand wound, said Dr. Bela Matyas, medical director of epidemiology at the state Department of Health.

Matyas stressed, however, the bacteria, Vibro damsela, is extremely rare in humans. A New England Journal of Medicine article two years ago reported only 17 known cases in the United States.

"I'd like to use his death as an alert to others who come in contact with fish to be careful," said Linda Holt. "A little nick from a fin could result in a bacterial infection, perhaps not as deadly as Al's, but there are other similar infections that can be fatal if left untreated.

"Al lived each day like a present. That was his attitude when he got up each morning and I know that's how he wants to be remembered by his children, grandchildren and many friends," she said. "And that's how I'll always remember him."