She went peacefully and smiling. The last few weeks she had experienced quite a lot of pain and was sedated with morphine as the tumour in her liver swelled. The home she lived in was magnificent, caring and personal and in the end she turned to them rather than the family. She had told me earlier in the year that she felt like 'A little girl with a lot of Mummys', and I really like to think of her last few days of being cared for like a little girl......
We had a perfect funeral. Very personal, everyone contributing from the great-grandchildren lighting the candles in the candlesticks that she had been given for a wedding present, to the different aspects of her life told by her daughters, grand-daughter, family and friends. The Minister was a close personal friend and made it very special. We had a service in the crematorium where we said good bye and this was followed by a celebration of her life in the Knutsford Brook Street Chapel where she had belonged for over 50 years. During this service everyone was invited to place little pots of pansies around the candles as their own way of saying goodbye. There was much talking, sharing, hugging and laughter and we did it well. She would have been happy.....
So now I am coming to terms with my Mother no longer being in this life and I turn again to my old friend my blogg! I have not blogged at all since the tenth anniversary of Chris's death in late September. For the last few months every day, I have been half expecting a phone call to tell me that Mum had passed away. In the end of course it came as a shock, but I feel I was very prepared for it, and as I knew she was living with pain, grateful for the release.
I'm still in Liverpool, my boys have gone back to Croatia and Portugal and I will return on Monday. It feels like a start of a new era, which I suppose it is. I will obviously come back to the UK to see Jimmy and Rachel, and my friends but my mother's death does make a difference.
So a new era?
Well I look forward to seeing what my future holds....... but wherever I go I will know that I am the woman I am, because my mother was the woman she was.........
We had a perfect funeral. Very personal, everyone contributing from the great-grandchildren lighting the candles in the candlesticks that she had been given for a wedding present, to the different aspects of her life told by her daughters, grand-daughter, family and friends. The Minister was a close personal friend and made it very special. We had a service in the crematorium where we said good bye and this was followed by a celebration of her life in the Knutsford Brook Street Chapel where she had belonged for over 50 years. During this service everyone was invited to place little pots of pansies around the candles as their own way of saying goodbye. There was much talking, sharing, hugging and laughter and we did it well. She would have been happy.....
So now I am coming to terms with my Mother no longer being in this life and I turn again to my old friend my blogg! I have not blogged at all since the tenth anniversary of Chris's death in late September. For the last few months every day, I have been half expecting a phone call to tell me that Mum had passed away. In the end of course it came as a shock, but I feel I was very prepared for it, and as I knew she was living with pain, grateful for the release.
I'm still in Liverpool, my boys have gone back to Croatia and Portugal and I will return on Monday. It feels like a start of a new era, which I suppose it is. I will obviously come back to the UK to see Jimmy and Rachel, and my friends but my mother's death does make a difference.
So a new era?
Well I look forward to seeing what my future holds....... but wherever I go I will know that I am the woman I am, because my mother was the woman she was.........
