In Marilyn's Words

day, helped him get in bed for a nap every day, and while he was sleeping I would run to the grocery store and get back before he woke up.

My quilting came to a complete halt. Instead, while sitting beside him, I added some appliqué and embroidery by hand to a quilt I had pieced. He was my biggest fan and critic, so whenever I added anything he would ask that I put it up on the design wall to approve of it or not. We did that with each new addition.

In the final days, I finished all the handwork, and he asked me to put it back up on the wall so he could see it. By then I had to help him get in a wheelchair to get around. While I was on the ladder in the sewing room I heard feet shuffling, and then all of a sudden, there he was at the sewing- room door with a big grin on his face, wheeling himself into the room so he could see the quilt. It must have taken every bit of strength he had. When he looked head on at the quilt, he gave it a big thumbs-up. He claimed it was his favorite of all my quilts! He named it Exuberance.

A couple of days later I sat by his bed in a chair we saved from our boat. Holding his hand I read the boat's log from our honeymoon. I told him what a hero he was to his daughter and me, and how much I will always love him. I told him it was OK to let go. He had told me so many times that he wasn't a quitter, but he didn't know what the point was anymore of fighting it. He took a deep breath, and that was it.