Sometimes, typos are the honey'd balm of the internet world.

Thanks, to you and Doug. On the plus side (if there's a plus side to not knowing if one's parent will last a few months or another five years or longer), I'm in a position to be able to travel home and see her on a very flexible schedule (who said not having a workaday world job didn't have benefits?)
On the minus, three weeks before he was dead, my father had a brilliant prognosis that included the word "years". Reality has certainly done its tempering of the mettle in my forties.