Several other people have been appointed to various roles surrounding this woman-- people who also know her well and are geographically closer. A few weeks ago, I gave her husband a spare MP3 player/recorder so she would have good things to absorb her mind during treatments, the after-treatment recuperation time, and the long drives back and forth.

Last night I also let one of these folks know that she has that recorder, and to let me know when it makes sense to go record her, myself. I can't stress enough how perfect this closer contact is to discern when that time has come, so that I will go at the needful time and not impelled prematurely by my own sadness and urgency.... it's not at all a shifting away of the role I have known I would play, but a sorting-out of all the people who will be able to serve her best in a myriad of ways. ;~) We should all be so lucky when our own time comes.


Thank you all, so much, for your encouragement and your stories. As I have written before, elsewhere, we human beans really only take turns bearing these things. I'm so sorry any of you have had to bear them, but I give thanks for every one of you who stayed close when your dear ones took their turns suffering, and suffered with them.

~Susan