I don't even know their names. They were just two women camped out in the visitor lounge outside the palliative care unit of our local hospital. I would learn that they were sisters and that their mother was in the room next to my daughter Jaime's. Jaime, after being diagnosed 9 years earlier, at age 20, with melanoma caused by her tanning bed use, had been a "guest" of this hospital for 5 weeks, and within a couple hours, she would leave us and her pain and suffering behind. I had left Jaime's bedside for a short break. I went to the lounge and curled up in a recliner, physically and me ..read more

A Facebook friend of mine who lost her young daughter to melanoma posted about a broken alarm clock that somehow would occasionally sound its alarm, like when the family was all gathered around the Thanksgiving table with the dreaded empty chair or when the conversation turned to memories of their daughter. I responded that this didn't sound at all unusual to me ... because since the death of our daughter Jaime at age 29 of melanoma, we have a chatty ceiling fan. This is the ceiling fan in our bedroom. Looks like your typical fan, right? Well, on occasion, it becomes, believe it or not, Jai ..read more