Troubles piling up 28.5.18

My mum died in the night on 23 May. She was at home, my sister-in-law was there and she was peaceful and free of pain. She had not been well for a long time so it was not unexpected and in many ways I had been saying goodbye to her bit by bit over the last few years. But I had hoped to get down to see her again before I have surgery in June.

There is a lot to do of course and we simply don't have the resources to do it all properly right now. We're not combat ready, as my brother put it. So we've decided to have a very small family funeral in early June, then hold a celebration of mum's life in the autumn when I will be fit.

I'm also feeling a bit down in the dumps about my 60th birthday. When I retired last year, I was truly thinking of breaking the habit of a lifetime, expecting to have the inclination and the time to organise some sort of get together to mark it. But it's gone the way of nearly all my other big birthdays - 16th was in the  middle of "O" levels, 18th in the middle of "A" levels, 21st in the middle of university finals..... Since January, when I should have been organising, I've been dealing with illness, and now funeral arrangements.

I guess you  just have to shake yourself like a dog and leave the misery all over the anaglypta. After all, my 50th was good - a long European weekend in Brussels and Amsterdam with mum, dad, Christopher and the kids - I enjoyed that. I shall look forward to having a displaced 60th birthday bash later in the year. Christopher's 61st is in November - maybe it'll be two birthdays and a funeral. In the meantime I will continue to delight in my Over-60s Oyster card - where I still have hair!



And there is the banality of everyday life to buoy one up, a third dishwasher engineer has visited, for the second time - yes, that makes four visits - there was tutting over what the previous two tried to do, the ordering of more parts but the dishwasher still stutters to a halt with an error message. Christopher will have more time to enjoy doing the washing up.

I was quite pleased with the dog metaphor/analogy/synecdoche above. (I know some of the special words but still don't quite understand what they mean.) No pics of the dog shaking inside the house, sadly, but she certainly does.

Comments

  1. Anonymous2 June 2018 at 11:38

    Well just think Rachael and I have decided that you are to have a decade of special celebrations courtesy of us and we will enjoy it and so will you, Whether you like it or not!! We will be in touch mafia style!!! Much loves Toni and Rachael xxxxxx

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