For the last few months, my mother has been an avid lurker on this forum, reading all my old posts and getting to know some of the fine people who inhabit this space. It has given her great pleasure and opened up a window to her son (and grandson "seamus") that she hadn't seen in great detail since she had only seen me kilted a couple of times due to distance.

She came to understand that this forum is really a community whose members care about each other and learn from each other, and she found this to be endlessly fascinating. We would talk about you-all over the phone just like folks we know in the "normal" sense of friendship and aquaintance.

Mom died tonite of cancer. Her passing was peaceful and pain-free. I was with her at the end, and was able to tell her that her kids and grandkids would be OK, and that she should let go and go to those who are waiting for her. She took another breath and was gone.

I'm sad, but thankful the end was swift and painless. She had started the Hospice route in March, and had a good ending, being visited before her rapid decline the last week by most of her family. It was a good ending.