We drove to Portland last week to say goodbye this weekend to a longtime friend from the days of Usenet, who also happened to be the boss who held my job while I recovered from GBS. He's had ALS for about fifteen months now and he can barely move. Watching his wife tend to his respiratory needs (he is no longer able to clear fluid from his lungs) was heartbreaking and also brought back memories when Kim had to do something very similar while I was paralyzed.  But we were both glad to be there, tell him we loved him, and also to give his wife as much support as we could.