My condolences to you for your loss. My congratulations to your mother for her longevity and her attitude.
I believe you were one of the parties involved in a thread a few months back about advance directives and such. Seems to me NailGunBob and Swing were, too. There was lots of good info in that thread, not all of which I've been able to implement with my mother yet.
However, let me hijack and update. To refresh, my mother lives in a condo above her sister 250 miles south of us and she'll be 89 in August. Three weeks ago, she called and said she was in the hospital . The long and short of the visit was they discovered a tumor in her aschending colon and she would need surgery.
We went down there and spent nearly two weeks, some in the hospital some helping after she got hom. Fortunately it was done laparascopically and 11 days post-op she boarded an airplane with her sister for their annual trip to Western NY where they spend the summer with their three other sisters. To say there's fire, spunk, and determination in that old bird would be an understatement.
I have long given up trying to get her to move closer, but the importance of advance directives and HIPPA waivers with every medical transaction was clearly driven home to her. There'll be quite the conversation when she comes back South in September.
Best wishes, Lew. I hope your kids have *9 programmed, too.