Something happened just over two months ago.

It was an event I'd imagined countless times, and I was scared of it.

But even though I knew it was coming, when it finally came knocking on my door, I wasn't ready.

Earlier this year, my mother died. The whole thing started with a fever. That was it.

She got a simple fever, but it got bad enough that she had to go to the hospital. I was in L.A.

and it's agony to be far away from your parent when something like this happens. I had doctors calling me at all

hours telling me she was going to pull through one minute. The next, she wasn't. It was a barrage of

ups and downs, and I'll be honest, it paralyzed me, because I was devastated. I was also scared of all

the choices ahead of me. There were decisions I had to make up out of

care. I also had to book a plane ticket, which should have been easy, but I felt like I was stuck in

quicksand and sinking fast. So I kept waiting, talking to doctors, calling friends, agonizing over

the choices I wasn't making. Then I got a call from a doctor at the hospital.

He said my mom was having a hard time.

She was calling out for me.

She was also calling for people who had died a long time ago,

like her mother, my grandma, and her husband, Jr.

When I heard that, it shook me out of my paralyzed state.

I told this doctor I'd be on the next flight, but the doc wasn't finished. He said that was fine,

but suggested something that could help mom in the meantime. See, she was an ideal candidate for a clinical trial he was running.

It was for some cutting-edge artificial intelligence program that soles the minds of the dying.

So when they leave this world, they aren't scared or lonely.

They're at peace.

...