Elizabeth Curnutte: Aug. 16, 1929-Oct. 26, 2006

I can't thank you enough for sending your warm thoughts and prayers in the direction of my mother and family since I first wrote about her battle with inoperable lung cancer.

I just received the call from Illinois. Elizabeth Ann (Mueller) Curnutte died this afternoon at 2:50 local time at her home in Dixon. My sister Joan and sister-in-law Rose were at her bedside. When nurses told them the end was near, they said a "Hail Mary" together and wondered how many thousands of "Hail Marys" this grace-filled woman had said in her lifetime.

" ... Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen."

The illness was mercifully short from diagnosis to the end, just a little more than two months.

She suffered very little. Mom had to receive oxygen the other night because she had trouble breathing. Her lungs filled with fluid. Her discomfort overnight Wednesday was eased by morphine. The door opened, and she peacefully passed through. When I can pull my thoughts together, I will write about how we all spent our final weekend together, during the Bengals' bye earlier this month.

I'm overwhelmed by gratitude.

I know this fact as much as I know anything. My mother and father, John, apart since Dad's death Feb. 12, 2003, are together now and for eternity.

And I know God loves me. He never had to prove it or do anything else for me. He allowed me to be my parents' son.