Oh Christ world, stop being so fucking hard on our Buffistas.

Drew, may the best possible happen with your father.

Connie, peace to your Mother's memory, and cope ma to you.

Allyson, Police and prosecutors have discretion. They don't a choice as to when they arrest someone and a choice as to when they prosecute someone. What they are doing to your brother may be legal (or not - I'm with everyone who says get a really good lawyer) , but it is not just.

That's hard news, Connie.

Whatever your history with your mother, she's the person that brought you into the world. You passed through her body and into this life. And now she's gone.

You might feel a little unmoored. Or not. It sounds like you made that break a long time ago.

Don't dread the trip back, though. You're not the person you were when you left, and neither are your sibs and family. It's not going to be what you remember but something else. And it might be something useful to you.

I'm sorry, Connie. I wish that I lived near so that I could offer to go with you.

Connie, I wish you much strength and the ability to cope.

Bloody hell. Punctuation all round, people.

I'm sorry, Connie. Strength and peace to you.

You may have to figure another way to acknowledge her passing.

This. You are the only person who knows all of the mysteries of your relationship, and are beholden to no one else with the way you deal with her passing.

I speak as someone who disowned her biological mother years ago, and know that at some point I will have to answer the same call. You have my sympathy and my heartfelt wishes for peace.

Drew, you already know how I feel, as does Kristin.

I'm so sorry, connie. It's still a hard situation to wrap your head around. Ease~ma for whatever chances to happen.

That's a difficult place to be, Connie. My sympathies.

Mother went into a nursing home on Wednesday. My middle sister, who's borne the brunt of immediate monitoring--Mother had been living in an assisted living apartment--then left to go to North Carolina with her new husband for a vacation. Last night she fell out of bed and just seemed bruised, but earlier this morning she was disoriented and when the staff checked on her later, she was gone. I suspect she was trying to leave. Mother was not a woman to give up her independence lightly.

Hubby won't be going with me, both from constraints of budget and because I'm not sticking him on a plane for eight hours. The only flights I've found are red-eyes from Salt Lake with a 4-hour layover in New York, then on to Pittsburgh.

No, I am not the person they knew. My sisters' husbands have never met me, and my niece and nephew have no memory of me. I don't expect miraculous reconciliations, but I think I can avoid weird recriminations. And I will be the same person afterwards that I've always been.

Humble thanks to you all. I am a blessed woman.