As Ponzi had noted a few days ago, her family has recently experienced a great loss. She's been helping her loved ones through this tough time, and has decided to stay with them a few days longer. She's run herself ragged, and I can hear it in her hoarse voice. The puppies and I miss having her here, but we understand that she has a lot of love to share. On Wednesday morning, she'll have returned to Seattle. Maybe I'll go with her when she heads back home to North Carolina after Gnomedex – with a layover in Des Moines? We'll see. I haven't met the greater part of her “Southern” family yet, and we both thought that this week would have been the wrong time to go.
As a child, the first deaths I ever had to deal with happened in the same year; my mother's grandmother passed away (if I remember correctly) in 1982, as did my father's father. I realize that death is a necessary part of life, but that doesn't make it any easier to face. May I have the strength of Ponzi when I have to face it again. My sincerest condolences to her father for losing his loving wife, and to her sister and brothers for losing their loving mother.