My condolences to you on your loss. My wife's Dad was stricken with cancer a couple of times over the last few years, and went into the hospital for the last time just over two years ago. We had been on our way to visit my parents for Mother's Day when the call came through on Annette's cell phone, and we abandoned those plans and went straight to Emerg.

So my wife spent the summer, right through until September 21, driving herself and her Mother from their home in Burlington to the hospital, where they kept him company, seven days a week, until he died. I was 60 kilometers away, taking care of two teenaged step-sons.

In the madness of the Internet, which is like one of those cowboy towns with false fronts out in the middle of a desert somewhere, Perlmonks is an oasis of sanity, and even courtesy. Peace on you, brother.