January 15, 2008 – Izzy and I met a new hospice patient yesterday, Sonny, who has cancer spreading throughout her body. She lay in bed, and Izzy hopped up on the bed, and in his gentle and intuitive way lay next to  her and she is a gentle woman, soft-spoken, who loves to read and she said said her grandson came over and heard that she was in a hospice program, and he was young, and he asked her, “Grandma, are you dying?” and she was stunned.
  She wasn’t sure she wanted photos taken because, she said, her hair was a mess, and we both smiled at that.
  No one, she said, had ever asked her that before, about whether she was dying, not even her closest friends, and she had never thought of herself
in that way, and she thought about it and said to her grandson, “yes, yes, I guess I am.”
  And he nodded and said, “oh.”
  And she said it was very peaceful and profound to admit that, and to be home, and comfortable, and clear about where she was.
   And she asked if I might come by and read to her from one of my books and I said I would be happy too, and I thought, what a good visit, what a good thing hospice is. And what a good creature Izzy is.