I am sorry to hear that your muse has flit off for somewhere else (mine seems to prefer the southwest Pacific) and I am sad to see this story end. I do applaud that you end it like this rather than just leaving it hanging (BTW, you really need to cancel or clean out your Yahoo group, it's been taken over by porno-spammers). I've greatly enjoyed this story and it is on my re-read list.
I wish you and yours all the best going forward.