Man, what a story.  I just can't fathom going through that and hope no one else has to.

Enjoying each at-bat (sandwich) is so very true. 

I enjoy the quiet of late at night and having four girls (three still at home), sometimes the noise they make grates on my nerves. Even the most simple of noises seem to be irritating, especially if sudden or repetitive (I think it comes from all those years of being forced to attentively listen to the endless garble of a police radio).  But when I hear them and grow irritated, I try to pound into my head how in a relatively short time our house will be silent all around the clock and void of the noises these girls have made over the years and that usually quells the discomfort.

My mother, before her passing, nicknamed their own house the "mausoleum" after I flew the nest because of how quiet and spacious it had become. 

One night, a good friend, my cousin and I were drinking heavily and at the right time played the soundtrack to Animal House and started singing along while playing the cassette over and over again.  Not once did she come up to tell us to shut up and years later she told me how much she enjoyed that night of listening to us drunkenly singing along to music and of one song where hardly anyone knows the lyrics except for the chorus.