'How I Met Your Mother' Season 9 Spoilers: Is The Mother really dead or dying? Vote in our poll!

How I Met Your Mother broke the hearts of many of its fans earlier this week when the final scene of the episode, entitled "Vesuvius," seemingly revealed that The Mother (Cristin Milioti) is dead or dying when Future Ted tells the epic story to his children in 2030. This has been a popular theory among fans for quite a while, but the show had never offered this much of an indication that those fans were right.

Just to refresh, here is a portion of my review for the episode:

"...[I[t's the moment when The Mother, in reference to Ted's story about Robin's mother showing up at the wedding, says that it's not much of a surprise because 'what kind of mother wouldn't be at her daughter's wedding.' And then Ted starts to cry. And then it hits you: holy crap, The Mother might actually be dead.

[...]

Consider what The Mother said to Ted earlier in the episode. She doesn't want him to be somebody who lives through his stories. She wants him to realize that life goes forward. Why else would she be saying these things unless she knew was not going to be about for much longer?"

Now we can debate whether Carter Bays and Craig Thomas made the right choice here. We can debate whether this invalidates the entire series or makes it all the more poignant. But first and foremost we have to debate whether or not this is even true. Is The Mother really dead/dying, or is this all misdirection?

HIMYM has deliberately misled its audience numerous times in the past, so the writers are not above purposefully making their audience crazy just to go in another direction when all is said and done. This, however, would be the biggest twist yet. On the other hand, The Mother's death or impending death would provide the impetus for Ted's story to his kids, so it's not completely unjustified.

So I turn it over to you, HIMYM fans, for an MStars poll. Is the Mother dead, dying or perfectly fine? Vote in the poll and let us know your reasons in the comments below.