Yes, Bebe, my precious husband has been declining for almost two years. This year was the hardest. An undetected lung tumor must have been what sapped his energy to such a degree that he could only walk with a walker and could only go so far before he was exhausted.

It was never what that dynamic man wanted, and it especially hurt when he saw that I had to take up the slack and do the things he could no longer do.

He hasn't driven for more than a year and a half, for example, and could no longer climb on ladders or lift anything heavy.

That this happened so fast was a blessing. I shudder at the thought of chemo, radiation, all of those efforts to save a life that was never going to go back to what he would have wanted.

Grief and relief go hand in hand sometimes. It seems I've already done a good part of grieving, just watching that decline.

Thank you for your thoughts.