Michelle,

WOW. Reading your post brought back so many memories. I spent 9 months 24 x 7 caring for my mother during her last stages of ovarian cancer. As I read your post about caring for your mother, it was easy to smile and remember some of the great times we had together. I could recall as a child so many fun things we did but I could not really comprehend how incredible some of those things were until we literally re-lived them during such a rough time. We talked of over 40 years of growing up and how ironic it was that we ended up in reverse roles, me taking care of her. As you say, it was a very rewarding experience. As the oft quoted start of a novel, "it was the best of times and it was the worst of time".

I truly thank you for the spousal caregiving. You taught me things I did not even think of during the battles that really help me understand more today than I did while going through treatment. I still see the battle scars in our family and while reading your recount, I understand more of the depth of those wounds than I did at the time.

Thanks for sharing all that.

Now, for a funny Montgomery story for you. When I was in 1st and 2nd grade and a year before that, we lived by Kilby prison, close to Gunter AFB. We went to pick pecans one Saturdy afternoon and didn't realize the little building on the other side of the property. As it turned out, it was the highway patrol headquarters and as they watched us pick bag after bag of pecans, they came over and made us dump all of them out or threatened to take us to jail for theft of state property. I just knew they went back and picked them up after we left!

Ed