Your observation about logistics and emotional issues matches my own experience and supports the advice Dean and Laura gave me back when I was heading to PA after Jack's father died -- there's often an emotional crash a few days after a funeral, once the logistics and structure that goes with one are done.

I'm glad your mother has contacted hospice services and hope that turns out as helpful as it was with the few times I've experienced hospice care as a loved one/family member.

Know my friendship is with you as you go through the hours and days ahead. You're welcome to call if you need to talk, vent, or be distracted by someone far away, especially late at night. You probably have both my phone numbers, but I'll put them in email to you so they're handy.

Wow. Making it through a ruptured AAA is a testament to medical science and to your father's luck and/or overall shape. Before this, Walt Willis was the only person I knew who survived such a rupture. Surviving both lung cancer and a ruptured AAA suggests to me that your father has a track record of beating the odds even before you get into all the heart stuff.

Remember to treat yourself extra gently as you go through the realities ahead.