For those of you who are dealing with a loved one about to leave, it is important that you talk to them. They can hear you, even at the end when all they are doing is sleeping. I told my mom many weeks ago that if she wanted to stop taking her cancer treatments, I would support her. She was getting worse, not better, and there didn’t look like any possibility of things getter better. So she decided. And on Wednesday, before I left the room, I told her that if she wanted to leave, I understood, and I loved her. That if she was trying to hang on to keep from hurting me, she could go. I was good. And when I left, she left as well. It is important that you talk to your loved ones. Because they will love you to their dying breaths, and it is important for them to know that you will not suffer in their absence. It will hurt. It always will. Love is like that. But when they are leaving, it is important for us who are staying to let them know we won’t suffer.