Pete, I just did a little looking back in this thread, I didn't read all of your posts about Tommy, but I read a few more. It helped because I am a relative newcomer here, so did not know about Tommy's myotonic dystrophy.

Also did not know that Tommy has been with you for over ten years, and for all of his teenage years, or that he was not expected to live to see the teenage years.

It's all very eye-opening and humbling for me.

My background has been in a family of origin where people have great physical resilience but they share emotional and psychological dysfunctions which few, if any, admit to or offer up for healing. Said another way, my family has a long history of people playing at being victims and martyrs, the hypochondriac sort, and often as not they outlive everyone else. Up close and in contact with them often, as in my childhood, what you witness is people draining each other.

So it is really humbling and edifying to see people giving to each other instead of taking from each other.
Sorry for going on about myself and my history this much.

Much gratitude for this thread and the hard-working humanity of those who keep this thread going.