...to have fallen into the "almost" category unlike so many others.

One of my old friends from High School escaped from #7 and with a co-worker, stood there watching the bodies fall. When he turned to his co-worker, he found himself talking to a headless body, still standing, its arms instinctively trying to feel for a head that was no longer there. A falling steel beam had decapitated the guy. No amount of prozac will ever erase that from his mind, and he's not the same person he once was.

Perhaps it's high time someone reminded my British friend of Winston Churchill's "Never Surrender" speech after the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940:

"We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!"

It ain't over till the fat lady sings, and I haven't heard her yet.

Mike