[ATAG_Snapper]

An old man is lying in bed in the last stages of a horrible terminal illness. There's nothing the doctors can do, so they've got him rigged at home with all kinds of life support apparatus to make his last hours as comfortable as possible.

As he's lying there all alone with his life slowly ebbing away, he becomes gradually aware of a wonderful aroma wafting into the room. From deep within his drug-induced stupor this new smell evokes almost-forgotten memories of his childhood. With great effort and not a little pain he feebly rips away his oxygen mask and begins pulling out the various tubes of saline and anaethesia drips. In agony he forces himself upright, and with a massive effort swings his wizened legs over the side of the bed. Gasping in pain, he uses the bed rails to lever himself upright onto the floor. Shaking under the stress, he manages to shuffle away from the bed towards the bedroom doorway. The unaccustomed weight on his legs sends shards of acute agony through the very core of his being, but through sheer force of will he propels himself determinedly towards the bedroom doorway -- he MUST find the source of that heartwarming, bewitching aroma from his boyhood.....

Ever so slowly, the dying old man exits the bedroom to be greeted by brilliant light emanating from down the hallway. One agonizing step by step, the old man gets closer and closer to this blinding light, the aroma now filling his senses and giving him renewed strength and hope. He now is at the threshold of this overpowering light and the wonderful, all-consuming smell of his boyhood is now pulling him within....

He blinks as his bleary old bloodshot eyes adjust to the brilliance. In astonishment, he sees row upon row of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies cooling on cookie racks on the kitchen table before him. Trembling, he reaches towards one of these cookies when suddenly a spatula smartly raps the back of his hand and his wife shrieks, "Don't touch those!!! THEY'RE FOR THE FUNERAL!!!!!"