Hello Everyone: Sorry I didnÂt get back to you sooner. I have just finished saying goodbyeÂs to my Sister and BIL, who are leaving for their return to Fla. and to others who have traveled far. I appreciated all the thoughts and Prayers you have sent. The Memorial Service went very well. A Pastor friend spoke about Steve and the times he helped with the Ministry; to the older folks, at a Home. He remarked how Steve had a way of cheering them up. Many of SteveÂs friends from Delaware County ( outside of Phila .) came up to the Service. Some spoke about their younger days, from HS , until later years. Everyone came to my house after the Service. I had all kinds of food for them. Nothing new, everyone always wound up there anyway. I made it thru the weekend with all of your help. Thanks Again !!! Dcarch: Steve didnÂt have a favorite food. He loved everything I cooked. Did you see me waving back at the Satelite , to you, from Holiday Pocono ? Tanto Grazie, Lou

Oh my... oh my :: That's the exact school Dan had just been accepted to... the letter is still in his room. He was going to Embery Riddle to become a pilot, which was his life's greatest dream. He chose that school instead of the airforce out of compassion for my mother, who lost her first son to cancer. In a way, he fell from the sky, like those two pilots who crashed down. Those pilots are adventure seekers... the ones who love to fly assume the risk. We are left with the tragic outcome. It's sad that those men are gone, however I didn't know them so I don't feel like breaking down and bawling, begging like a little baby... which I did yesterday. I was reading this forum and I'm spending the weekend alone... being completely alone I cried like I never expected to again, I thought the wailing begging grief was over. Anyway this post also makes me think very much of Dan. Maybe he's met those pilots in Heaven. "Whoah... Professor So-and-so, what a pleasure, man, you're not going to believe it up here. I would have enjoyed learning from you in life but the earth's atmosphere is positivly *limiting* compared to the space in this joint. Now that we're all on the same level, maybe I can teach you something! Come on, let me show you around. All you have to do is ask, and you can fly. And I'll take you to a special place in the sky, where you can look down on earth and zoom in to your families... and even other people's lives, haha". ;)

Unless you know otherwise, I wouldnt assume because Pandora gets along with a dog that she would get along with, or want to have another cat around. Even the best of introductions can be stressful for the resident cat - and may involve keeping them separate for days ... possibly weeks or months, depending on the animals involved. I would just wait and see - you and kitty will be there for each other, and then at some point in the future you may.... or may not..... want to bring in a new pet into your home. And also I dont think you can prevent grief - either for yourself or your kitty - by getting a substitute beforehand. The bonds take years to develop, and the grief is for that particular animal, or person. There is no avoiding. I made that mistake once, when my cat reached 20 I got a couple of other cats thinking it would help lessen the grief when the time came. While I love my two boys and cant imagine life without them, my poor old girl did NOT like it - no way, no how she would accept them - and I had to more or less keep them separate on a permanent basis.. ( She had had a kitty friend years previously but had been solitary for a long time.) And trust me, my grief when she did pass was no less intense. Best to you, sorry to hear you will be losing your dear doggie

I've told about this on another forum....so forgive me if I mentioned here as well. I had a friend in the town where I used to live. After I moved away, I called or went to see him once in awhile. But I hadn't seen him in about three months, and I called him and his phone was shut off. He had emphysema and after the diagnosis, he wouldn't go to the doctor any more. He was a heavy smoker and his doctor had been his family doctor and he chastised him so severely, Ken just quit going. After I moved away, he went down hill. I truly was his only friend. He had others when he used to work, but he had retired at 55 and no friends close by and he became more of a loner. Anyway, I thought he had died and no one told me. As odd a person as he was.....his family was more so, and even though they knew I was his closest friend, I knew they wouldn't bother to tell me if he had passed. So, I rushed over there. He came to the door in his underwear...long beard and hair. He had never been like that. One of the neatest people I had ever known...always shaved and kept his hair trimmed. He had no food in the house. Wine bottles stacked like cordwood in all of his cabinets. Hadn't been to the post office or paid any bills. Didn't know his phone had been cut off. I was sure he was going to die any minute. He wouldn't go to the doctor or let me call any of his family...His sister lived next door on one side, also a niece, and a nephew on the corner and his ex wife on the other side and one of his son's lived with his ex. I cleaned his house. Bought food for him, Went to the liquor store and bought his wine...he didn't need to be driving and he wasn't going to quit drinking,..or smoking. Paid his bills and talked to him and promised him I would stay with him....or at least check on him every day. How long could he live? A couple of weeks? A month? How about eight years! Went to see him every day and up to four times a day at the end. Slept on the floor many times to be with him. Arranged for someone to cut his hair and shave him and mow the grass. The last four years of his life, he never left the house. He refused to go to the doctor or let me call his family. I abided by his wishes in every way. He kept a loaded 45 revolver under his pillow. I never tried to take it from him. He said he would shoot himself if he felt he had to. I felt like that was his option. I didn't think he would, but I knew having the gun there was a comfort to him, as odd as that may sound to some people. He was always independent and had to be in control of something, and at this point, that was about the only thing he could control. We had talked about many things, all the years I had known him. Being there every day, we talked much more. He didn't believe in life after death. I asked him to please give me a sign after he passed. He reluctantly said he would...mostly to mollify me. After he died, I had a dream about him. In the dream, I was in a hospital bed and I was dying. People were standing around the foot of the bed and Ken was at the foot of the bed, but he walked out of the room. My dream shifted then, and I was walking down my driveway. He had given me his truck, and folded up between the side mirror and the body of the truck, was three pages of notebook paper, and on it, writing in pencil. Ken used to write to me when he couldn't see me, and it would be about many subjects...history, investing, football, song writing and writers, songs he had written, and on and on. Always in pencil and always on notebook paper. I started reading it and he said he was sorry he had left the room when I was "dying". He thought I was very brave but he couldn't stand to see me die. (When his cat needed to be put down, I did it....he couldn't, so that is just like him). Before I could read the rest of it, I woke up. I had several other brief dreams about him, but one day, he called me on the phone, and he said, "Why don't you come see me anymore?" I didn't want to tell him he had died and his niece that he didn't like was living in his house, so I said, "You don't live where you used to." He said, "What?!" So, I told him, "Ken, you died." And this is so typical of him......he said, "Are you sure about that?" That is exactly like him. If I told him something he wasn't aware of....he always said, "Are you sure about that?" End of dream. And yes, that could be all my doing....dreams like that, but not long ago, I dreamed about him again. We were talking, and in my dreams, when I dream about him, it is always just like he is really here....so much like him. But, I woke up and I couldn't remember what we were talking about. I wished I could go back to sleep and dream about him again, and know what it was he was telling me. But, I didn't, and when I got up, later that morning, and walked around to the foot of my bed, there was a letter K, in handwriting, at the foot of my bed. It was formed by many little drops of water. No water in the room. No one here but me. One cat....still asleep on the *water. I didn't take a picture of it at first and it started to fade, but I did take a picture, and it is on my phone. I will post it later. *Edited: Cat still asleep on the bed....not on the water...