On Sunday my great aunt Jean passed away at the grand old age of 83. She died of cancer, but to all accounts was as comfortable as possible when she died and she was surrounded by family.
Jean was my mother’s cousin and she was the matriarch of the family. She knew all the family history and had a big family of her own. She was a headmistress in a private school and lived a good life.
Whilst it is sad when someone special dies, in this case there is plenty to smile about in the life she lived.
The funeral will be next Friday in Cheshire and I decided I would go and take the little one. It will give her the chance to meet lots of family she has never seen (I haven’t seen them much myself). She will also love having a road trip with her mum! The hubby will stay at home.
My mother will go too of course and so I am going to travel via Anglesey to fetch her. The little one and I will stay on Anglesey for a few nights which will give her a bit of a holiday – lets face it, there are more fun things for a 4 year old to do than go to a funeral!
I am not telling the little one about all of this until just before. She will get really excited and has no concept of time yet so it really wouldn’t be fair. Also we’ve found that when she is very excited about something she wets the bed overnight – so I could do without that!
Inevitably, despite my new found happiness and love of life, anything where I “go back” stirs up the silt in the bottom of the jar. So I’m having a few battles in my head right now. Nothing major. Just challenges.
Trevor says the best thing to do is to not give those thoughts power – just laugh them off. Unfortunately it appears when I do that, the laugh is a bit maniacal! But it’s better than nothing so I will keep at it!
