Eleven years after suffering a stroke that had left him with difficulty walking, he fell at home and broke his hip. Once that was repaired at the hospital, difficulties and complications cascaded down upon him until his dear 89 year old body couldn't make a come back.

From Hospital to rehab center and back to the ER he went, each move causing him a little more confusion. But in the ER he did, one more time, manage to take the best possible care of my Mother and her tender feelings.

Their 62nd Anniversary had been on December 22nd. They had met when he got home from the war and my Aunt introduced him to Mom as "that cute Vet" she knew. They were smitten and married soon after. They moved from Ann Arbor to Park Forest, and from there to Lexington Mass and later to New Jersey.. having children and building and good life along the way. With each move, he went ahead.. Mom's "advance man", scouting out neighborhoods, investigating school districts, making sure that he brought his young family to the very best place he could provide.

When we were standing above this wonderful man in the ER as he drifted in and out of consciousness, Mom told me that Doctors had been asking her what were her "expectations" for results. She told me she knew they were asking about DNR orders. Daddy overheard this, and in what was just about his final communicative moment, told her that she should "let him go". I knew what he meant, as I had seen his eyes when he heard our conversation. Mom thought he meant that he wanted to go "out of the hospital".. Then she stopped, looked into his eyes and asked "Do you mean what I was just talking about?" and he looked at her and said, clearly. . . yes.

So as his final act, he took the pain of the decision onto himself, as he had for their whole lives together. The straps and needles and tubes and tapes were gently removed and he was moved one last time to the Hospice and made as comfortable as possible.

He left us soon after, Mom's advance man once again.
I will miss him so terribly terribly much.

Daddy's little girl, always...
Ann