Originally Published 2/21/07

Well, I'm back. Unfortunately, my Dad passed away on Friday night. He was admitted to the hospital on Monday evening for pneumonia. Sometime during that night he had a respiratory arrest and was put on a ventilator under sedation. We all flew down on Tuesday. He was on the ventilator until Thursday morning. When we got to the hospital that morning, he was sitting up, eating ice chips and the pneumonia seemed to be improving. We all got to tell him how much we love him. It was like he had arisen from the dead. I was so happy because I had been steeling myself for the worst. Sadly, on Friday night during the night he had the same thing happen where he stopped breathing and this time they couldn't get him back. We're so sad, but also happy because we got to say what we wanted to say. We got to see him one last time and he knew how much we loved him. He told us over and over what a nightmare it was being woken up on the ventilator. He wouldn't have wanted to go through that again. So I guess if it had to happen, this was just about the perfect way for it to happen. It was quick and painless for him, and there was no unfinished business or things left unsaid for us. That has always been a huge fear of mine, that he would pass away and I wouldn't get a chance to tell him that I loved him. My mother is doing better. She came out of the hospital on the Sunday before my Dad went in. She's under a lot of stress right now, obviously, but she'll be coming home to NH on March 3, with my sister, and she'll be addressing the rest of her health problems up here. Here is a picture of my father, mother, sister and niece in happier times.