Hi all. I just joined and here is a blog I wrote last month for my Dad, thought that would be a good place to start: In loving memory of my Dad 11/17/38-11/24/007 So my Dad passed away a little over a month ago. You wonder your whole life what it will be like to loose a parent and then it happens. He fought Melanoma for 15 years-neverending tumors. He just had one removed earlier in the year. Thought he had an ear infection until he fell down. I had to trick him to get him to go to the hospital. Cat scan and MRI later, he had a brain tumor on the stem. Inoperable and chemo doen't work on Melanoma. He went through 30 radiation treatments having his head strapped down in a mask. We helped him eat, read to him, changed the tv channels and yelled at the mean nurses. I had medical power of attorney. That meant a lot of very hard decisions at the end and shaky signatures on the authorization forms. He was doing so well and had another stroke. The Cat scan showed bleeding in the brain and that the tumor was larger than when he began his radiation. He kept trying to talk until the end but could not. I spent hours and hours trying to understand what he was trying to say. When he still had some control of an arm, I held a marker in his hand to write. He drew a heart. It's in a frame next to his picture. He was in a coma for 2 days and the doctors didn't think he'd come out of it. We walked in and he woke up, the day after his Birthday. He smiled at me so big and his eyes lit up, telling me everything I ever needed to know from him in that instant. I will never forget it. We moved him to hospice care and spent the week camped out there as I tried to finish my final school project to graduate. It was harder than anything I knew, being there, seeing him decline, watching, counting the seconds between his breaths, painting between tears. I put on the games for Thanksgiving and kept him updated on the score-he would give a small smile each time. I got so tired of saying goodbye. He waited until we left for a night to go. The social worker and my Mom and Brother forced me to leave bc I'd not left for 3 days and it was too much to take. I wrote and read his eulogy. I played "Hey Jude" at the beginning of the service. He and I used to sing to it at the top of our lungs in his car over and over. We weren't close several years of my life. I began to get closer to him over a year ago, and am thankful for every second. You look back and realize through tears how much time was wasted with foolish pride. This has changed me. The growth that comes from a loss like this is staggering. I look forward to when I can enjoy it more. You find yourself forgetting they're gone and thinking something about them, then you remember. Thud. I miss him like hell but glad his suffering is over. I love you Dad.