I was going to wish that I had peaches and a root, but we have ginger, so I do actually have a root.

oh dear ... I'm sitting here laughing - I was pointed to Mary Robinette Kowal's Twitter thread about the realities of peeing, etc., in space. Also includes a note that the space suits were made by the seamstresses who worked for Playtex (I dreamed I orbited the moon in my Playtex space suit?).

Sometimes you just never know. Many of you were at the F2F in Madison when I got the call about my father. It was an urgent call, but not dire. I did rush home to see him. Cancer and he was going to start treatment. Again bad, but didn't seem dire. Kristin and I went to CT to see her family and 10 minutes into their annual family reunion I got another call and we drove directly to the airport and I flew cross country. I made it in time to see him, get him moved to home hospice, and he died the evening that he got moved to hospice. That was one month after the Madison F2F.

Until that final flight home from Boston it didn't seem like it was imminent.

End stages are such a roller coaster that it is hard to convey accurate info because it can change so quickly.

it didn't seem like it was imminent.

Yeah, I talked with my Dad two days after he was out of the hospital. My sister made it sound like it was really dire, but when I talked to him he was all, "Ahhh, she worries too much. I'm okay." Then he died two days later.

Yeah.

Cindy, so sorry to hear about your son. Do you know the comic artist Jeffrey Brown? He has a graphic memoir about the very severe IBS he has and how it put him in the hospital many times when he was your son's age. I think he also needed pretty major surgery for it as well. It's called Funny Misshapen Body [link] I'd send you my copy but our books are all boxed up while we work on the room they live in. I'd be happy to order a copy from my friends' store if it's something you or your son would be interested in.

Yeah, up until the night he passed away I thought Dad had just had another setback and was on the (longer) road to recovery. He'd had so many hospitals stays I was conditioned to think he'd always get better and things would go back to normal. Mom knew about a day in advance of me, I think.

Yeah, up until the night he passed away I thought Dad had just had another setback and was on the (longer) road to recovery. He'd had so many hospitals stays I was conditioned to think he'd always get better and things would go back to normal. Mom knew about a day in advance of me, I think.

This was me with my mom. Except it was my aunt who was warning me that maybe I should brace myself. But yeah, she was always recovering, until she wasn't.

For two weeks in the summer of 2015 it was a touch and go with my father. For two weeks (and the months before that) me, my sister, my mother and the doctors were certain that he will die. He somehow survived this, non of us sure how. It stayed like a shadow in the background since then, and every health issue brings us back to the realization of grief and that he is really bad with taking care of himself or asking for help when he needs it.