It is much against my preference, and with my deep regret, that I must announce that there will be no November/December 2018 issue of _Freelance Traveller_. The past few weeks have been a trial for me. At the beginning of September, my father was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, and within two weeks of the diagnosis, it was confirmed that it had gone metastatic to the liver. Without treatment, the prognosis was no more than six months; with the most aggressive treatment available, the prognosis was no more than seven. My father has always preferred _quality_ of life over _quantity_ of life, and elected to decline more than palliative care. Rehabilitative placement followed, and was showing good progress, but after a week, there was a marked decline, to the point that the rehabilitative facility could not handle my father's needs and conditions. Just over a week ago, hospice placement was approved, and my father was tranferred to Calvary Hospital's hospice facility in the Bronx (NYC). Their personnel were mostly wonderful when it came to addressing my father's needs and wants - our family tend to be poor patients at best - and there were no indications of any problems or misinterpretation that could not be quickly resolved. Throughout this, my sister and I were providing administrative and emotional support for my mother, and for each other. At 6:15 EDT Saturday morning (October 27), my sister, my mother, and I received telephone calls from the doctor at Calvary, telling us that my father had passed shortly before, in no pain and at peace while asleep. As we are Jewish, burial is to be at the earliest opportunity, and that was today. My parents were married for 56.5 years, an amazing record when you realize that it is unremarkable for more recent marriages to end before the tenth year. There is more than the emotional aftermath to deal with, however, and my sister and I are still "on duty". Unfortunately, the level of stress and call on my time means that _something_ had to give. I thought perhaps I could manage to get the issue out perhaps a week late as I have done in the past, but it's simply not in the cards this time. There will be no issue 90 of Freelance Traveller; the next issue of Freelance Traveller will be issue 91, January/February 2019. Unlike past issues where there has been a gap followed by a "double issue", there will be no extra material in issue 91; it will be the usual 64 pages. I would have preferred not to have been forced into this evaluation of my situation, and would have preferred not to have needed to come to the conclusion that I have, which hurts you, the community, due to events beyond your control, and because of my personal weakness. Nevertheless, I would rather this than "lead you on" and then publish an inferior product, or silently fail to publish. You have my profound apologies. -- Jeff Zeitlin Editor Freelance Traveller
