I'll give some folks just a little peek behind the curtain from Michael and us nation, you know, for the last few months,

whenever we would record Luke would often ask me how are things, and then I would launch into sort of a long spiel about how bad things were, and you know, sometimes it would get a little bit dark, and then we would trail off, and then I would say, welcome Michael and us, I'm Will Sloan, here is always with.

Looks savage, hi everyone, it's good to be back.

First of all, I just want to thank Michael and us nation, both our patrons and our free listeners, just for your patience with us and your understanding during a longer than usual delay since the last episode.

As many of you know, my father passed away last weekend, and I would just like to thank everyone who sent kind words and well wishes my way, including quite a few on the Patreon page, it really does mean a lot.

I'll just give you folks a little bit of context for what's been up with me lately.

We've kind of alluded to this in recent episodes, but my partner and I have been in Kitchener for the last two and a half months.

We were full-time caregivers for my father who was in the last ages of cancer, and I'm very proud and very grateful to have had the experience.

We made his last weeks much more comfortable.

It was already a difficult time for us because my mother passed away from a long-term illness last September, so the ability for us to spend a lot of time together in these last months is one I'll be very grateful for.

I will also say a lot of the time, especially in the last month, it was a hellish experience.

I'm sure we have people listening who have had similar experiences acting as caregivers for loved ones, so they know what I'm talking about.

It's an experience that I don't think I'm fully recovered from just yet, because the days immediately after a parent's death are some of the busiest and most tiring days you will ever have.

I don't particularly enjoy arranging and hosting parties.

I find it stressful in the best of times, and holding a funeral is like holding the worst party of all time.

You're holding a party for a dead person around their specifications, and you have to take that person's place as host, so it's very tiring.

A lot of it was very good, though. My father was a professor at Conestoga College here in Kitchener, so I was grateful to hear from a lot of his students about his impact on their lives.

That's a side of him I didn't really see a lot.

We had a Catholic funeral mass, and probably not how I would want to go out, but I do take satisfaction from having given him the send-off that he wanted.

I would like to say something briefly about the Catholic church in this moment. It's the church I was brought up in.

Until this experience, I held no particular opinion on the controversial subject of euthanasia or assisted suicide.

Today, I believe from what I've seen that the church's opposition to it has caused an unfathomable amount of suffering and unnecessary pain, and I would just encourage anyone who disagrees with me on that to be with someone with terminal cancer in the last week of their lives, and you will understand better.

...