Bereavement

is a gift you have.

If I ever recover from this stroke, I hope to find mine.

I thought the stroke was the worst thing I'd ever experience until my Dad died. I do believe my stroke helped him survive as long as he did. Most people die rather soon with a congestive heart failure diagnosis. He held on over a year.

The thing that comforts me the most is he passed the way he wanted. He died in his own home, in his own bed in his sleep. He was a man of great, if unusual, faith. I miss our conversations about faith and politics the most. I have only one other person I can talk to that way but she doesn't have the faith he did. Few do. He was the most giving person I know although my Mom comes close. I dread losing her. The bane of growing older.