Absolutely correct on all points, my friend. It's unpleasant to see the eventual culmination of things you knew would eventually come to pass despite pleadings

Absolutely correct on all points, my friend. It's unpleasant to see the eventual culmination of things you knew would eventually come to pass despite pleadings to the contrary. I'm blessed to have been able to help Mum take care of him in his latter days. Even still, despite his advanced age (75), he was still young enough to technically have 5-10 good years left to enjoy life had he not succumbed to such addiction in his 20s. But, he did everything he could to the best of his abilities, as you said. I've a lot of notes to eventually go through on some hobbies of his that I will one day dig into. The one blessing with this is when they have ample time to get their affairs in order and share things they wanted you to know. I understand this probably sounds a bit morbid, but it's life, isn't it? It's a good reminder to us all that what we have while we're here on this Earth is incredibly fragile and we need to cherish this gift as long as we are able. Growing up, you always hear those tidbits of wisdom: Enjoy stories from your elders, because they won't be around forever. In youthful arrogance it's easy enough to laugh it off. Being older, though, you appreciate more. I'm grateful to have had the conversations that I did. I also have a deeper appreciation of some folks around Dad's age I've gotten to know over the last few years from church. Funny how things like this can help your perspective evolve over time...