I just got the news this morning. I can't say it was a surprise, as she was in her 80's and had Parkinsons Disease for a while with all kinds of complications. For the last two years she seemed not to know what was going on very much, and my last visit (Thanksgiving) was hard, as she didn't seem to care much about anything or understand what was going on. My last phone call, last week, she didn't quite understand anything I said. What's so hard about it is that she was so lively up into her 70's. When she was 73, she drove from Florida up to my house in New Jersey, then up to my older brother's in Mass. all on her own. She loved to travel like that. She moved in with my younger brother in South Carolina about 5 years ago, and her health went down hill, until she had to go into a nursing home. It had to have been tough for someone as independent as she once was. So, in a way, I'm relieved that it's over, and I'll pull through, but I'm sad right now. Thanks for giving me a place to get this off my chest.