i went to mobile on may 24-30 to be with manuela for the one year anniversary of ray's death (i even got to see dennis for a little while). she is doing well and is trying to move on with her life. we spent many hours sitting in their backyard talking about ray and the last four years of his life, as we watched ceaser try to chase their two cats. i always loved that ray was such a "cat" person. many men could care less about cats, but not ray. it was harder for manuela to come to the first anniversary of ray's death than she thought it would be, but, she knew last year that it was ray's time to leave us. she knew the pain raging underneath his outer strength.
she is taking things one day at a time, as she still struggles with her own intense chronic pain. she told me there is still one medical billing for ray's care, which they paid with a joint credit card initially, with the sole purpose of the card being for ray's medical expenses. if they had paid the bill using an account with ray's name only, the balance due would have been dismissed due to ray's death, and manuela's disability. all other bills for ray's medical expenses have been dismissed except this particular one. the balance due on this final bill is high. it is $25,000. if anyone desires to help manuela with this expense in any way, i know she would deeply appreciate it. i asked her if it was okay if i passed this information on to the forum and she said yes.
claudia