It can only be uphill from here, right?

By 11:30 this morning Sam figured it was safe (late enough) to call his relatives on the west coast to wish everybody a happy new year. He started with his adorable little mom, as he always did, at her assisted living apartment in Sherman Oaks, California, except a stranger answered her phone, and when Sam asked to speak to mom, the stranger — a nurse — told him MOM HAD JUST DIED IN HER SLEEP.