DEAR ABBY: I read with interest the letter in which Ernest A. Schichler Sr. described how hospital visitors subject patients to stress. I, too, have seen this.
My father had a stroke that partially paralyzed him. While he was in the hospital recovering, his many friends came to wish him well. He could barely talk because of the paralysis, so they talked among themselves. At one point, he called me to the bedside and, speaking with great difficulty, said, "Tell them to leave. They're talking about the high price of funerals." -- KELLY MC DONOUGH, HURST, TEXAS