Having arranged for hospice services in California, Mrs. R had her mind set on a scenario in which her husband died at home, in his own bed. This grieving wife desperately clung to the comforting mental picture she’d constracted, one that conformed to her own timetable for Mr. R’s . Now, I had to think quickly about how to deal with this distraught, soon-to-be widow at 40,000 feet, still 1,000 miles from land. It was clearly time to take about letting go.