My guy is more alert than last week, aware of his situation. He says “It shouldn’t end like this, with whipped cream”, looking at the berries and whipped cream I brought.

He says, “I should have ended it when I still could.”

Soon his wife brings in a group of gangly, sweet, teen boys from their church and they sing hymns to him. I can see him singing along to Amazing Grace.

They say some prayers with him and I go to over to see my old Jewish vet, who is much recovered this week. He looks at me, smiles, and says, “Want to hear some Hebrew jokes?”