Sourdough -- Your story was particularly moving for me because my mother was also named Eunice, and we siblings often called her by her name -- my brothers more than I. She died of emphysema, at the age of 76; she had started smoking in her teens. During the last maybe ten years of her life she was hospitalized at ever-more-frequent intervals. I had some wonderful times with her during the last year or so before her death, when I would go back to visit her every couple of months. I was devastated by her death, and still struggle with the loss. It's been 14 years, and I still feel sometimes that I'm trying to drag her back to life like the yogi's fawn.

As for faith healing, in a way, I think that is the only kind of healing there is. I recognize that it is not faith that enable penicillin to cure bacterial diseases that used to be fatal -- but it is faith, of some kind, that drives us to want to live. If the desire to live is intense, then healing has a powerful shot at working; if the desire to live is weak or doubtful, then healing is very unlikely. For myself, I also believe in prayer. There are a number of books by Larry Dossey, MD, outlining various studies that have been done on the power of prayer to help healing, whether the person being prayed for believes in it or even knows about it or not. But prayer can only work to heal some passing condition; it can't heal us of being mortal.

I also recommend Stephen Levine's books. Whether someone is going to die of the current illness or not, she is going to die sooner or later, and it is a good idea to give some thought to what that means, and how you will come to terms with it, before the grim reaper knocks.