Me, too, nurse, ditto and tritto, all of the above, same here - the tears, too.
My mother's eyes were exactly the same shade of blue as Pat's - first thing I noticed when I saw her picture. She is, in a sense, everymom - the good, the best ones, that is.
In the 17th century, the Dean of St. Paul's, John Donne, in his Meditation XVII, wrote that "No man is an island, entire, of itself." Though I've never met any of the posters on this thread, I do truly feel a kinship with each.
Through this sorrow we have come together, reminding, as Donne ended his meditation, "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls - it tolls for thee." We're all in this life together, tied to one another by the same laughter, and by the same tears.