Dear Jeanb

I am so sorry about your Dad's passing. My Dad is 86, has recently had an injury and seems to be kind of giving up. Were you able to be with your Dad at his passing. I see that you were gone when he went through much of his change, but I don't know if you were able to say good bye. If not, this is something I read in a hospice manual: sometimes people, whatever their condition or state of mind, wait until loved ones are absent to pass over. This is apparently to spare them somehow. I pray that you are okay and that you are coming to recognize that there truly is no death of the spirit. My sister-in-law gave me the best advice on dealing with my mother's death in 2002: in speaking of her own mother's death and how she handles it, she said, I just assume that she is still around somewhere. And truly, I believe that this is true of our parents. Caring for you, billie