Out With The Old, In With The New

July is almost here, the month that begins the medical year. July 1 is the day the new interns start their rotations at the hospital, perhaps not the best time to be in the hospital if you can avoid it. It’s also the day my mother died in a local (Carlsbad, CA) nursing facility 10 years ago, after a remarkable, agonizing, exquisite 17 days with no food or fluids where my three adult siblings, other loved ones and I shared the bedside vigil and many fond reminiscences for much longer than we’d anticipated.