I am so sorry that your time with her was so short. Your description moved me to tears.
What an amazing tribute. I’m so very sorry for your loss.
So sorry for your loss. She was obviously quite a lady.
I thank everyone for all your kind words, which mean a lot to me. Writing that post just gushed out, I guess I needed some kind of release for the emotions I have been feeling over the past few days. I hope I did not bum too many people out, but sometimes I can write more easily here what I might not be able to express verbally to someone in person. It helped me to organize my memories of her, and I am resolved to expanding that post for myself as memories come flooding back. I hope you won’t mind If I dump here from time to time, for there is much that transpired that I have yet to fully process. There are saints and villains among those who tended to her last days, and I expect I will have to get it out there at some point or I will go crazy.
The nurses at Boston Medical Center ICU have a special place in heaven; I now have a deeper appreciation for the difficult job they do with love and respect for the strangers who come through their rooms on a daily basis. Before Pam lapsed into unconsciousness, the night nurse at BMC asked if she was Portuguese, and Pam answered weakly, “Yes”. The nurse said “I’m Portuguese, from Cape Verde!” Pam became much more communicative, and they talked about big, rowdy Cape Verdean families (“What else to they have to do?”) and the food of their childhood, from manchup to kale soup to jag. This nurse really cared, and gave me a big hug when she went off-shift in the morning. All off the nurses were like that, and it was an enormous comfort to both Pam and myself.
I’m so very sorry for your loss and your wife’s pain. Most of us can only aspire to the courage and strength you have and the love and care you gave.
Your memorial is a lovely testament to what sounds like a wonderful woman. I’m sorry I never got to meet her, and I’m very sorry for your loss.
I’m so sorry for your loss. 
beautiful tribute. i am sorry for your loss.
I am so sorry for your loss. You are in my thoughts.
I’m so very sorry for your loss.
Condolences.
I am sorry for your loss. You write of Pam with eloquence and emotion. Thanks for sharing a bit of her with us. I am also glad your ICU experience was a positive ones regarding the nurses. I remain convinced that RNs can make a huge difference in the grief process of those left behind, as well as ease the passing of the patient.
How terrible. I wish you the best.
My sincerest sympathy. You wrote about your wife beautifully; it wasn’t “yacking” at all.
She sounds like she was a great lady and you two had a beautiful love together. How horrible to have finally found each other, only to have it taken away a few short years later. There are other “crazy people” on this board that have loved and lost as you have. I hope you all can talk and they can help you through this in some way. I wish you peace and strength.
My heart is breaking at your description of Pam. You have my condolences.
She always made our home, humble as it was, a place I didn’t want to leave in the morning, and couldn’t wait to get home to in the evening. In some ways, we were both such homebodies, content with our little family, just me and her and the dog.
She often told me the story of her Portuguese grandfather, Puppa Dan, who would come home to her mom’s house after a long day gambling at the jai alai fronton. He would rap on the kitchen window with his keys, and announce, “I’m tired, I’m broke and I’m hungry; whatta ya got?”
I could always get a laugh out of Pam when I finished my daily schedule of clients, and called her on the phone. “I’m tired, I’m broke and I’m hungry; whatta ya got?”
I will missed that greatly, being able to turn on that warm smile, and just bask in it’s glow at home with my little family.
I am sorry. I wish you all the best.
DEAR GOD Fear I’m so sorry for your loss! She sounds like a wonderful wife!
I am so sorry. There’s nothing else I can say, except that.