At the Journeys End

Mike has been calm and valiant over the past year and a half. He has followed the protocols, yet his cancer escaped its bounds. As we transitioned to Hospice, he was able to appreciate each day. He read the morning comics, took walks, collected the mail, read the Irish Times, and responded to email. He was also working on profiles for El Pilar, a great help.

Mike and Anabel are Checking out Details

This past week, he found it very difficult to get up; he was weak, his walking was unsteady, and his ability on the computer faltered. He could not walk down our long driveway to get the mail, and he found he could not work on my profiles.  

I had imagined that we would go on in a simple mode, and his health would slowly change.  This past week showed that it was not in the cards. Even so, he was involved in the lovely dinner, wishing Ceci and Donna a fine return. Jonathan, his brother and Cathy his wife and son JD came up for the Saturday lunch, and he was outside on the patio for that. Luck Cathy left some wonderful foods that he has enjoyed since their visit. Sunday, he could not get out of bed.

And his and now his days are numbered, and he wishes to hasten his end.  We are working on that, while in the meantime, we are getting hospice visits every day, a special bed that will make moving easier, and more support in the morning in the evening.  We are fortunate to have a good system.  

Mike finished a book manuscript over a year ago.  It went through reviews and was turned over to a layout publisher in March.  It was not until well into September that I was getting worried.  Mike, still able to work, had not seen any progress. I got on the case, and we have seen updates, but it has been slow, and there have been so many formatting issues.  We now have a basic draft that we can read for details, and I can now send it for the indexing.  The index may take a month!  

My hope was that Mike would have the complete book in his hands, and as he ended his journey on this earth, he would see his opus that represents his reflection on his research on the Chumash.  Santa Barbara's Ancient Past is a public-facing work that gives the interested amateur as well as scholar a general look at the complex story of the area and will be published by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The last book treating this subject was published in 1929!  Every century, they need an update!  

Well, the idea of Mike holding it in his hand had to be done differently.  This involved taking the PDF to be printed in color and trimmed to size... and now he has it in his hand!

Mike with his book in his hands!