My Dad has terminal cancer. I’ve known of this for a while and thought I’d done my grieving. Mom told me today that he is in the end stages of life and will probably die within a month.

I know that I will see my Dad again in the eternities and that he will always be my Dad. This helps with my understanding and acceptance of the process, but doesn’t make it any easier. My tears flowed freely this evening.

The hospice nurses told Mom that the body goes through a well defined process as it shuts down towards death. Here are a couple links I found that explain the process.

http://endoflifecare.tripod.com/Caregiving/id79.html
http://www.hospicenet.org/html/preparing_for.html
http://www.thedoctorwillseeyounow.com/articles/cancer/hpcare_6/