He was a cut-up, and had a sense of humor to the very end!

I must share a story:

During his 5 month stay hospice care he rebounded for a time and he loved to mow grass on my John Deere garden tractor. One day he was mowing and Claudia was in the house and I was out back in the Doghouse and we would occasionally look out and check on him. We could hear the motor going away then back again, when we heard it round the pool and stay. Claudia and I must have noticed it at the same time. We looked out the window and there he was slumped over with his arms across the steering wheel and his head down, motionless. She cam running out of the house, I came out of the Doghouse and converged on him still sitting on the mower with the motor running. Of course you know what we thought- he had suffered a major heart attack and was slumped dead on the mower. As we got to the mower he looked up puzzled and asked, "What's the matter?" We said we thought something had happened to HIM. He said, "No, I was just reading on the floorboard how to adjust the cutting height of the mowing deck and I am a slow reader..... and added I promise not to die before I have the whole yard cut."