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Dale Gilsdorf meditates in the burned out trunk of a cedar tree. Dale undergoes an MRI scan at South Sound Radiology to diagnose the progression of his brain tumors. Dale's radiologist views the new scans, which reveal new metastatic brain tumors. In Dr. Horton's cramped exam room, Bonnie and Dale absorb the results of the latest MRI scan. Dale listens carefully as Dr. Horton discusses the limited therapy options. Dale sorts through his mounting bills and medical papers, struggling to keep them organized. On Dale's 59th birthday, he was presented with a dinosaur birthday cake and serenaded by Bonnie, Nicolle and Renée. Dale carefully composes his obituary in his upstairs office. "I don't mind writing this obituary.<br/>I feel like I'm writing a report. I'd like to believe it won't see print for a good while." In the guiding crosshairs of aiming lasers, Dale's brain tumors will be reduced by radiation.<br/>At Olympia Radiology's linear accelerator, his daily dose is 200 centigray. Dale and Bonnie stroll along the beach below Dale's house. They have been together for two years, since shortly before Dale's diagnosis.<br/>At that time Dale cautioned Bonnie, " You're a 38-year old woman with two kids. I'm a dying man." "She believes I can defy the statistics, that I can survive," Dale says of Bonnie.  The day before Gene is to return to Nebraska, the beloved brothers pause on Dale's beach. When Gene soaked him with a water pistol, Dale upped the ante with the garden hose. Weakened by his spreading cancer, exhausted by the previous days' activities, Dale slept almost all day Sunday,<br/>the last day of the full family's reunion. He made just a brief appearance in the livingroom, where he napped. While their Dad sleeps nearby, Renée and Nicolle sort through the ever-growing piles of bills and papers on the dining room table. Gene and Nicolle move much of the furniture out from around a generally unaware Dale. Having finally sold his home<br/>in September, Dale was too sick to attend to the move. He had to be out by the end of October. Nicolle and Bonnie help Dale, who was disoriented and agitated as they attempted to go<br/>on an ice cream outing in mid-September. It took an hour to actually get in the car. Nestled in his 1936 Ford, Dale is surrounded by the love of his family during a mid-September ice cream outing. When Dale's health began to its rapid descent toward death, his family hung Tibetan<br/>prayer flags from the back deck, in a place where he could see them from his bed. Dale began withdrawing in the last two months of his life, yet his family sat by him, sharing their mutual love. Dale sleeps where he fell, while a disconsolate Nicolle ponders the dilemma of caring for a dying father 
who has grown angry, distant and confused. René tenderly contemplates her dying father. Nicolle gently massages Dale's feet, soothing him as the family dresses him for the move to the nursing home. As Bonnie and Russ get Dale into the van they'd borrowed for the ride to the nursing home, Nicolle comforts her grieving sister. Two days after arriving at the nursing home, Dale's fragile health collapsed. As he<br/>rapidly floated toward death, he was surrounded by his family and a sea of love. As Dale dies, Nicolle and Bonnie stroke his body and grieve his passing with Russ. Nicolle had whispered to him<br/>"It's OK Dad. You can let go. We are all OK, Dad. We are safe." Bonnie said simply "Goodbye, my love." At the tree that was his special sanctuary, Dale's celebrants tie ribbons and leaves as part of his memorial service.