The long journey ended

My beloved daughter, Betsey, ended her 19-month long, courageous, and often inspiring journey with brain cancer (glioblastoma) on Friday evening, July 22nd, at a few minutes before 6p.m. in the evening. Her husband, Rob, and her daughter, Katie, were at her side. She had been in Hospice care since the beginning of July, and essentially unresponsive for a couple of days. Her final days were pain-free and her death was gentle and peaceful. Ellen and I were driving from Boise to Alpine at that time and our cell phone was out of range. We got the news about an hour after the fact when we came back into range, and just minutes before arriving at Paul and Jenny's, which was hard, but we managed to negotiate it.

However, we had spent over three weeks helping to take care of Betsey, with Ellen especially on the front line, experiencing many sleepless nights. We finally had to face our physical limits and withdrew to Alpine, and then Boise and Salem. 

Now I will return to Boulder this coming Sarurday for a celebration of Betsey's life, with a gathering of Boulder-based friends and co-workers. That will give me the opportunity to hear testimonies and remembrances of Betsey from her co-workers, which will be very moving. Just what will come after that for us is still to be determined. However, we know that Rob and Katie plan to take a two-week trip, starting with a few days with Rob's brother Neal and his wife, Sue, in Eugene, OR. A very well-deserved vacation, because they have been on the front line of care for Betsey, pretty much 24/7, for months and months and months. 

Eventually, I will have the opportunity to post Betsey's obituary and some of my favorite photos of her. I will need my computer for that, and I will need to get to the local library for WiFi. Meanwhile, I need to address a clutch problem with our Subaru. Lots of screeching and scraping when the clutch is disengaged. After some online research and tests with the car, it sounds like maybe our throw-out bearing needs to be replaced. We'll see tomorrow whether that can be done locally or whether we'll have to go to Jackson. This week, Max will be in science camp, so Ellen and I will have our days to ourselves.