Having spent 3 months helping my uncle Woody Burns get back on his feet after a fall that broke his hip, I couldn't be sure how we'd find him this weekend after our 5 month absence. In fact he is doing better than ever. Prior to his hip-breaking fall my uncle had been on a heavy dose of pain medication for a back injury that ultimately required extensive surgery, creating more pain than it alleviated. While he now uses a walker for getting around he is more sure footed today than I had seen him in the previous years, which in part I attribute this to being off the pain meds. The intervening 5 months were too long a break in our otherwise regular visits that my great aunt and uncle had become accustomed to expect every 60 to 90 days - we'll return with my mother-in-law in tow in early June.