Thanks goobster for posting. Your piece is sad - but beautifully written. Your lines here That should mean something, right? struck me. It does mean something, but not what we'd like it to mean, what we need it to mean. When my step-father was dying, I remember thinking over and over again: Why doesn't the world just stop?? I could not believe that everything was just going on business as usual while I was so close, every day, to death. Your feelings sound similar: "someone else stepped in and did his job." A friend of mine died in Montreal on Sunday. Her funeral was today. From recognizing a problem, to diagnosis, to death was three months - just enough time for her to plan her funeral, her loving partner of many years cast adrift.After all... someone died.