memory eternal for your Dad and prayers for your mother. Was it sudden?
My father's body died of lung cancer which was attributed to his exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Viet Nam from 1966-67. The diagnosis was terminal for the last ten months.
When he passed away he was home with just my mother and me. He had been unchurched in the last 10 years or so and refused to see a priest even in his final hours....in fact his refusal was the last lucid conversation I had with him.
Despite this he was a very moral man and had strong convictions about right and wrong. On more than one occasion he put his own life at greater risk to save the lives of enemy soldiers -- while still never failing his buddies -- and always being "aggressive" as a combat infantry soldier. He was never in touch with the spiritual side of his life much though. We do not know if he was even capable of this. At the end he confided in a friend how meaningless material things in life seem when one is facing the end of life in our material world.
