>>>it was clear that my mother was relieved when we told her we were taking her home.
>
>All credit to the Granors. Surveys indicate that while outwardly co-operating with heroic attempts insisted on by family, often the elderly want nothing more than to be resting comfortably at home in their waning days. Instead they're hooked up to the machine that goes ping and are poked and prodded towards an uncomfortable slightly delayed demise.

Well, Ezekiels, not Granors, in that case. :-)

My mother's final illness was brief and brutal. In mid-August, she and I took a day trip to DC by train for a family party. By mid-November, she was gone. In that period, she had 4 hospital stays at 3 different hospitals, a load of tests, and even participated in a study (of a shampoo that was thought to reduce hair loss during radiation treatment). But the reality was that by the time we knew was wrong with her, it was too late for intervention to save her life.

Tamar