200 Miles Away And It's Impossible To Get Home

I reported yesterday on the sad story of the NASA astronaut, currently working in the International Space Station, whose mother died in a traffic accident. Here's more on the story:

HOUSTON — Daniel M. Tani's 90-year-old mother died in an auto accident this week, but he has no way of getting home until late January. He must grieve from more than 200 miles away — in orbit, aboard the international space station.

It's a heartbreaking situation no other American astronaut has experienced. And it's made all the more tragic by Tani's devotion to his mother, Rose, who raised him and his siblings alone in suburban Chicago after their father died when he was 4.

"He is obviously pretty sad," the astronaut's brother, Richard Tani, said in Thursday's Chicago Sun-Times. "He was pretty close to her. We are all close to her. She was loved by everyone."

Tani's wife and a flight surgeon on the ground broke the news in a video conference call with the 46-year-old astronaut. But phone calls and e-mails from space are as close as Tani can get to the loving embrace of his family. ...

NASA prepares for all sorts of contingencies, and bad news from home is one of them. All astronauts are asked whether they would want to know about family emergencies right away or whether that information should be held back if they are preparing for an intense task such as a spacewalk, said Dr. Sean Roden, Tani's flight surgeon.

Tani, like nearly all his colleagues, wanted to know immediately, Roden said. Many have said they wouldn't want their family to go through the grief alone, he added.

NASA offered to let Tani take some time off, but he decided to carry on with his normal duties, including checking on science experiments, and "he's doing remarkably well for the information he's been given," Roden said.

Family, friends and counselors were just a call away on a private Internet phone line astronauts are allowed to use throughout their mission, NASA said.

"Everyone's dedicated to making sure that Dan has everything he needs," NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier said.

The Tani family has not announced when the funeral will be held. Once that happens, NASA said, it will help Daniel Tani participate in any way he can, perhaps by a video or telephone linkup.

Our prayers go out to Astronaut Tani and his family in dealing with this very unique and tragic situation.