My cousin is dying of brain cancer. He was an active, vital young man of 40 and then one day he got a headache. Now he is in bed, has lost much of his vision, trembles, and has poor short-term memory.

This past weekend, my mom picked me up from the bus and took me to go visit with him, since the last time I had seen him was a couple of months back. At that time, he could still walk and see. He had not seen me in a while and congratulated me profusely on my weight loss.

He is bed-ridden and sleeps on the first floor of my cousin's house. His sisters take care of him. My mom visited with him first and fed him his lunch. It was my turn to visit and so I sat down in the chair at the head of the bed. He was very close to me and opened his eyes every so often, but I could tell he couldn't really see me. Still, he told me more than once, "You look great."

At a loss as to what to say, I started babbling about the Panda Cam. I love the Panda Cam. I love sending postcards from the Panda Cam and I love receiving them. It's just so delightful! Who doesn't love a baby panda? I even sent the link around to my coworkers.

I told my cousin that I was going to make sure that I made it down to San Diego to the Zoo and also up to San Francisco, since I had never gotten around to it when I lived there before. He told me that he went to San Diego on his honeymoon. I asked him if he went to the Zoo and he said yes. And then I asked him if he saw the panda exhibit and he said yes.

Then he asked me, "Is today the day you're going up to Frisco?"

I said, "No, I think I'm going to wait until I get out there."

He said, "When you get down there, you have to make sure you go across."

And I asked, "Where? In San Diego?"

And he said, "Yes, you can walk across it."

And I said, "A bridge? The Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco?"

And he said, "No, San Diego."

At a loss for what he meant but trying hard to help him figure it out, I asked, "You mean at the military base?"

"No," he said. "You can walk across it."

I guessed, "The Zoo?"

He said, "Yes. The Zoo. You have to go."

And I said, "I know, I want to go see the pandas."

And he said, "You should go. It's important."

And I said, "I know. I'm definitely going."