Richard --

Quick c&c for you:  As per your questions about the final scenes, keep
them in.  They are painful and sad, but necessary.  No transition, no
change is ever easy; all growth and gain comes with a corresponding pain
and loss -- and showing the effect on her and her family is necessary.  It
provides a... "completeness" (for lack of a better word) that fills out
the story's potential.  It's a far better story with those scenes left in.

-- Bob