One month ago today (on February 12) my mother died peacefully in a Hospice facility. She was taken there 4 days earlier when she could no longer be cared for at home basically because she had lost all control below the neck and lost all ability to communicate. My theory is that the cancer spread to her brain, but that's an uneducated guess. As best we can tell, her pain was finally under control those last few days. The people at Hospice were wonderful.

I recently read a book that I would like to recommend to anyone who is losing the fight. Deborah Howard, a Hospice nurse, is the author. The title is: Sunsets, Reflections for Life's Final Journey. The final stages of life are explained and many questions answered about end-of-life issues. It's available from Amazon. The book is written from a Christian point of view. I wish I had found this book a few weeks earlier. I would have been more prepared.

I must say that the only thing that has gotten me through these last few months is my faith in God. I know that this is not the place to discuss this in detail, but if anyone would like to talk about it, please contact me by e-mail: [email protected].

I'm also very thankful for this website which provided me with so much info when my mom was first diagnosed. Reading the information and reading your stories prepared me to ask the right questions of doctors and offer encouragement and ideas of things to try to my mom.

I'm still in the grieving process, but I have the confidence that we did all we could. Many things in life, including death, are just out of our control.