@john5398. My heart goes out to you as you make this journey to visit with your brother. It never gets easier when we know we might be saying ‘see ya’ for the final time. As the youngest in my family, I’ve been through this myself with my brother and sister so I can really empathize with the emotions you’re feeling.
Distance can certainly complicate frequent visits with family. My sister and her family all lived 1,500 miles from me. I was ill at the time of her death so I didn’t even get to the funeral.
You asked about my path with cancer and my support system. There are only 3 of us, my husband, adult daughter and myself. She lives 5 hours from us. But when I was diagnosed and hospitalized for leukemia (on the same day) she offered to come right away. But my husband had her wait…then she came for 2 weeks to stay with him while I was in the local hospital for 5 weeks. Later I was relocated to Mayo-Rochester for 4 months, bringing my husband and I in closer proximity to our daughter. So those two did a bang-up job of tag-teaming so as not to be overwhelmed with caregiving. Independent me became high maintenance for a while. We also have several amazing friends who went out of their way to help out…guess ‘it takes a village’ doesn’t just apply to rearing children.
I know you’ve been through so many sad experiences lately and I’m sorry for yet another possible loss. Do you have other family or children/grandchildren nearby for local support?