Sharon ~ Thanks for your concern.

Actually, Mom's passing, at age 84, was not a terribly sad event. She had been suffering from dementia for about seven years, and her condition had deteriorated badly over the past six months or so. All of us ~ friends and family ~ had been afraid that she would hang on for months and years in her severly diminished condition; her mother and grasndmother had both lived well into their 90s, and Mom's physical (as opposed to mental) health was pretty good until shortly before the end.

We all agreed that it was a blessing that she was taken so soon after we had to finally move her out of her home (where she had lived for years with full-time live-in caregivers) and put her into a nursing home.

Here's a link to her obituary, as printed in the Newark Star-Ledger:
http://obits.nj.com/StarLedger/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=18918028

Also: Greg, I, too, remember "Away in a Manger" as being "verboten." Crazy, huh?