All,

Marilyn called last night and I spoke to Stan in the hospital today. He was in reasonably good spirits, still somewhat dreamy and drifty, but resting comfortably and continually drawing in his book, which has become very important to him. A kind of dream/illness journal with text and drawings that he has been doing for a few months, partly as a result of hypno-therapy exercises with Marilyn's sister. She and her son are working now to get some of the text and drawings posted on the web, "to be of some use to people", as Stan said this morning....

Many tests have been done and the prognosis, I'm afraid, is not good. The cancer has almost completely eaten away his hip and joint and he will not be able to walk any longer, even with a walker. The cancer has also spread substantially throughout his liver. It is probably now a matter of a few months.

He will be in the hospital for some time while they move him from morphine over to methadone. I will let you know what the situation is in terms of receiving phone calls, etc. and when he is expected to be home. I think the best that can be done at this point is to participate in Bruce McPherson's benefit to help defray the enormous hospital costs (he is not yet covered by Canadian health insurance). Marilyn has been overwhelmed with phone calls in the last two weeks, and she is, needless to say, completely exhausted. She asked me to ask everyone to understand that she simply cannot keep up with giving everyone an update, one at a time, so I'm trying to help in this regard and take some of it off her shoulders with this email. Please be judicious about calls to their home or the hospital for awhile.

I don't know what else to say, but I wanted to keep all of you who care so much for him apprised of what's going on. Again, please spread the word to Stan's circle of friends. I am deeply saddened to have to bring you this news, but I am hopeful that there will be, in the end, some mercy from all this suffering he has had to endure over all this time. You should know that Stan seems to be at peace with what's going on.

Marilyn walked into the hospital room yesterday and saw a man sitting in a chair right beside Stan's bed, while he was sleeping. This is Charlie, who shares Stan's room, who is also stricken with cancer, and is also given to hallucinating from the medication. When asked what he was doing, Charlie said "I'm supposed to be watching over this man."

I wouldn't be a bit surprised....

Phil