As her fight wore on and her battling body wore down, I knew it was time to talk to her. I'd already told her it was okay if she wanted to die. But now I just wanted to tell her, one last time on Earth, what she meant to me, to us all ...while she could still hear me. So, I took a deep breath, thought about what I would say, or at least how I would start. And this monologue of memories and love just came spilling out... What author Tim Ghianni said in that CCU unit during the next few hours, his mother's last few hours, is a sometimes funny, sometimes tear-filled and occasionally raw string of memories and anecdotes as he tells his mom how her wonderful life helped shape his own.