This past weekend, we found ourselves in Fishkill NY in a Holiday Inn Express right off I 84. The place gets a B+ I would say. The reason for the visit was to see family following the very recent death of my uncle Bob who had been dealing with cancer. He passed this past week peacefully. He’d recently come home from the hospital and had been there about 24 hrs in hospice care when he died. My aunt told me he had spent part of his last afternoon listening to polka music. I had no idea this man to whom my aunt had been married for 29 years liked polka music.

The visit was bittersweet: quality time with my cousin and aunt, and some training at the gym at the Holiday Inn, all intermingled with the tragedy in Japan on CNN.

Before seeing my family, I did a little 8 mile ride on the hotel’s recumbant bike, watching CNN in their fitness center, thinking of Bob. It was a strong ride resistance wise and remarkably easy on me; the recumbant bike feels like cheating.

My uncle’s death is the most recent to have touched me personally, but a reminder that work like the PMC supports is essential to so many.