News of my death are
Not exaggerated. Yesterday I died (as posted by his wife), apparently peacefully and in little to no pain, while sleeping.
On Wednesday, Kirk was given a new pain medication script. Since he was in quite a lot of pain for quite a while, he chose to take the last of his hoarded stash of pain pills that he had received nearly two months prior, when discharged from the long term stay Nursing/rehab facility he had been in for months. He had recently also been experiencing more issues with waking up while sleeping, due to problems breathing, caused by sleep apnea. He had just taken a sleep study which confirmed that he needed a bi-pap, but it would take a week or two (at the time) before they would be able to get the results to a doctor, so that he could get a new machine. It's my opinion that, due to the small amount of pain pills that he took, he became so relaxed (from lack of pain) that he was unable to wake up when he stopped breathing while sleeping. I was dozing in a chair nearby, and thought it strange that it was so quiet. However, I was so tired that I ended up falling back to sleep before investigating. It wasn't until I woke up a second time and it was still too quiet. I became alarmed and checked on him. It was too late, he had been dead too long for emergency personnel to revive him.
I have located a recent video and picture of him, peacefully smiling at me a very special smile that he reserved for me alone. The video was regarding a power chair he was going to return, but it's a voice and image that I can keep forever to remember him by. I still don't know what I'm going to do, but I at least have the comfort of knowing that I can likely get assistance with getting him cremated. A friend of ours has already offered to let me stay with him while I get myself stabilized, so my cats and I have a roof when our rent comes due for July. I hope that Kirk has been helpful to people in this thread, and anyone is welcome to link this to any thread where this would be of interest.
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And my deepest sympathies, best wishes and hope that stability, wisdom and peace all come your way. 
Yet there is also so much beauty in what you say.
