Notes

• In the previous post I said that I had not talked to Jack about his military service. In the two months since I started that post, I did talk to him about that. He was drafted when he was 18 in 1953. By the time he was ready to be sent to Korea, the war ended, and he spent the rest of his two years working in the mailroom on a base in Georgia. It was during this time that he learned to golf and remembers it as an enjoyable time in his life.

• I don't think it is a coincidence that my blog went dark around the time that Jack went into the hospital this last time. I had originally planned, once I got the post done about him, to back fill with Friday Fives, Ten on Tuesdays, and random posts to make it look like I was blogging all along. However, now I have decided to just leave the gap in posts, as a kind of tribute and a recognition that I had more important things to do.

• They moved Jack to the Critical Care Unit on Sunday for a couple of days to try to get his blood pressure regulated. When they did this, he had his daughter bring one of his bouquets of flowers to me at my house. (Which is when she told me that he would not be coming home.) When I visited him in the CCU on Monday and thanked him for the flowers, he told me they were from family in Arizona but they were stuck up on a high shelf in his room and hard to get to to water. I also saw that they did not allow flowers in the CCU rooms. He told me that he wanted me to have them for Star's homecoming and that they were given with lots of love.

• I talked to Jack's daughter last night. I had to hear her say what I already knew. I had to hear her say it. His heart is working at about 20%. He knows he is dying. He is depressed about it but he is coping. He could go at any time.

• I have cried more tears this past month than I have for the last several years of my live put together. And they just keep coming.