Mark has called me about several problems he has.

When you hear you have terminal cancer, you know the months ahead will be precious, but difficult. We're now encountering difficulties we never saw coming.

He fell on his slick hardwood floors dashing to answer a phone and he broke his arm. He is nearly blind in one eye and can not read now. He had to have an emergency surgery on his eye. He is feeling bad from chemotherapy and can not keep any food down.

Mark calls me from the hospital groggy with pre-operative medication and as they are wheeling him to surgery he dictates his last will and testiment to me just in case he dies today. He has been in pain from his eye surgery. The doctor did a biopsy (mark did this under local anasthesia to save money), thinking it might be occular metastasis. This biopsy was sent to N.Y., and while we are waiting for results, Mark tells me that he will just have his eye taken out and get a glass one with a smiley face on it. He has not lost his sense of humor. He has a bubble in his eye of some sort and has to sleep sitting up. He is not allowed to lie down.

He desperately wants to come to Texas to visit for 10 or 12 days between chemotherapy but the eye doctor will not let him fly until his eye problem is corrected due to the pressure on the eye when flying.The doctor wants to do a laser surgery on the eye but Mark says he can not afford it. He has a different type of surgery on his eye...a second surgery and then finally decides he will go ahead and have the laser surgery. It will be a week or so after the surgery before he knows if this will help his eye problem.

Through all of this I am trying to get some records from Mark to use in filling out his tax forms for 2004. He is too sick to deal with this and when he feels better and does deal with it, the records keep getting lost in the mail and those sent by fax are illegible. I finally get his signed request for an extention in the mail. This has been a fair amount of worry and work as I have to send any paper forms to him in Bangkok then bug him to find whatever I need or sign whatever needs signing and mail it it back.

On Aug. 15th I pay an H and R block tax preparer, who is expert in dealing with foreign income, to do Mark's taxes based on a lot of research I have done to get information about how these taxes need to be handled and the documentation needed and many many calls and letters back and forth to Saipan and Bangkok and bugging my Austin, Tx CPA friend, who is retired, for suggestions and verification. On August 15, I also go to IRS and wait in line forever to get a request for an additional extention of time because I don't yet have a copy of a W-2 that I need.I mistakenly had thought that this extension request could be postmarked by 15th...it has to be received by IRS and get a stamp on it and the local IRS then sends it to Philadelphia where all filings with foreign income must go. It is a great people watching experience to wait in line in the IRS Taxpayer help facility on a deadline day. I know lots of people will sigh in relief when they learn these tax forms were finally filed.