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Dear brother in Christ xzins, thank you from my heart for your kind words of condolence on the recent passing of my Dad. All is well — now he sees his "Pilot" face-to-face. He has gone home.

My ping list is long because I wanted to share a story with you and the other pingees.

When word got out at the assisted living community where my Mom and Dad resided (Mom is still there and coping well), one of the residents — Barbara, a beautiful woman in her mid-'80s — took me aside to comfort me on my loss. This is what she told me:

Barbara is a registered nurse (retired) acting at the time of her tale as an ICU head nurse. She had a patient, someone known to her prior to his hospital admission (I don't recall what the illness may have been). When his cardiac monitor flat-lined one night, there was no doctor present. She was quite alone. So she took out "the paddles," applied them, and got his heart restarted again.

The next day, this patient said to Barbara: "Barbara, I know you had to do what you had to do. But I wish you hadn't done it. Where I was, was so full of peace and love that I didn't want to come back."

Barbara added that, later on, this patient developed cancer (which in due course killed him) — but he never again had any fear of death.

[In northern Maine I am told that the "old-timers" refer to death as The Great Change. The point is: LIFE goes on....]

Just wanted to share this with you, and other dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

God has comforted me. My family and I are all well. Thank you again for your kind condolences.