Mary started hospice yesterday. It has been a mix of emotions for Mary and our family to begin this journey with hospice, but overall we’re all at peace with it. On the one hand, some would see hospice as “the beginning of the end.” But, for Mary, and for us, it’s just another step in this journey through life. We are so grateful that Mary is still feeling okay most days and that she’s not in terrible pain. Doctors have seemed shocked at how minimal her pain, with how rampant her cancer has run, and how healthy she is – other than the cancer. It took doctors two different ER visits and many tests to even find the cancer because all of her blood tests looked really good overall and all of her organs – other than those affected by the cancer – looked really healthy.

Our goal now is to keep Mary drinking water/fluids and eating on her own (as she has been) and to keep her comfortable and happy. And this is something that hospice will be really helpful with.

Peter has been at home in Brighton for the past few weeks, but needs to head back to Clemson to get ready for his classes to begin in August (Peter is professor at Clemson in South Carolina). So he’ll be leaving this weekend to head back – and will travel back to Michigan as he’s able/whenever needed. And the girls (Kate, Moira and Delia) have been taking turns, making sure one of the girls is almost always at the house in Brighton every day – to help with anything needed by Mary and Bill. Having hospice to fill in when we’re not able to be there and having them on call 24/7 will be incredibly helpful for the family and will bring a much needed resource into “the fold.”

We are grateful for this time we have with Mary and she’s so happy to be home – and she’s so appreciative of the visits (both in person and on the phone) and she’s loving all of the messages and emails too. So thank you all for all of your love and support!

Lots of love,

The Bryan clan