August 22, 2008 – Today, do yourself a favor and think of Marion, a beautiful person filled with love, at the edge of life. She is thinking of you, and of her family, and of Izzy.
  Take a moment to think of her and the many millions of people at the edge of life, all around us, in the homes, apartments and nursing homes we drive and walk by every day. Many of them are alone, isolated, waiting and they need us to notice them, and so think of them, and touch them with love and light. A year ago, this would have sounded sappy and too emotional for me, and I would have gone right over it.
  Now, Izzy and I live it, and we honor and think of and miss the beautiful people we have seen as they approach the end of their lives, and how much our visits have meant to them, and to us.
  Nobody should die alone, and nobody should have to struggle the way the dying have to struggle to live in dignity and comfort, and to believe that someone cares about them as they leave the world behind. Nobody should be mistreated in this way.

 
 So tonight, as I go to the county fair, and meet my friend Mary Kellogg, and bring Izzy to the hospice booth – I surely know that nobody wants to see a hospice booth at a county fair – I will be thinking of Marion, and Glenn, and Helen and Philip and the other loving spirits who live in my heart and mind and imagination. I am grateful for them, for they have shown me how to love, listen, value time,  to keep faith and live my life with some meaning. Those are gifts beyond measure.
  I think of Marion.