ABSTRACT
It was your typical beautiful autumn day in Southern California. I was only a few miles from the beach, but I could have been in any town because I was closeted in a tiny library carrel writing this book. I kept trying to concentrate on the section I was writing but my mind kept wandering. My thoughts kept returning to my brother-in-law, who would die within the week from pancreatic cancer. What I needed to do then was to write this goodbye poem:
