Thank you, equanimous. I have friends who continually remind me that I'm doing a good job and that means a lot. Care givers need affirmation and credit for what they do, because the job is more difficult than I ever realized. I watched my brother decline before he finally died at age 86. I had no idea what my sister-in-law was going through for a very long time. A visit of a few days now and then was hardly enough to grasp the reality of the day-to-day relentlessness of the ordeal. When my brother told me that his wife had become "more of a caregiver" than a wife, I didn't know what he meant. I know now. It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a village to help the dying.