Farewell, "Mom"

It is with great sadness that I pass on the news that Barbara, known to us all as "Mom", of "Mom's Cancer" and "Mom's Recovery", passed away on Saturday, October 1. She was just 66.

Her son Brian, the man who has written her legacy, a book entitled Mom's Cancer to be published in February 2006, has written an eloquent post on his website that gives more details.

I "knew" her only online and for the briefest of snail-mail exchanges; there wasn't time for anything more, and another card I'd begun to make for her sits half-finished next to my bed. I knew her for but a microsecond of a full, rich, if all-too-brief life; but she taught me more about living life, and facing down death, with humour and grace in those few months than I could ever have thanked her for as long as we both might have lived. Our thoughts are with her children and grandchildren and loved ones; if we feel bereft at losing her funny, warm, voice, we cannot calculate nor understand their loss.

It may seem a funny thing to say, but I am glad it wasn't the cancer itself that caused her death, even if the treatment did. She stared that vicious monster in the teeth and made it blink, and finally flee.

Goodbye, Barbara, and I hope whatever you find on the other side is exactly what you had hoped. No matter how inadequate the words may be, thank you for everything.

ronnie