I was doing okay with my intention to blog regularly, until my dad's health began to fail. He has been declining since he fell a couple of years ago and this spring things really began to go downhill. All through March we kept the road hot down to Seattle to see him and then sit in the hospital with him and my mother. All seven of us siblings were able to be with him in the last week of his life, although the real burden of support fell on those that lived the closest. He died on March 28, eleven days after his ninety-second birthday. (Since he was born on Saint Patrick's Day, of course his name was Pat.) We all gathered again on May 1 for his funeral Mass. Even though his life was quite a long one and we have been watching the end approach for a while, the family now has a hole that can never be filled. I will miss him until it is my turn.