A Shocking and Untimely Death.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Marlene nipped out of her house to hang out her washing in her postage stamp sized garden. The task was never completed and Marlene never went back into her house alive. Devastatingly Marlene's heart failed and according to the doctor, she would have already been dead before she even hit the ground.

Marlene's youngest son, aged 24  had just popped out to buy some milk and when he came home, after just a ten minute absence, his mum was dead. Imagine the shock, the heartbreak, the loss he must have felt.

It is a commonplace to praise the dead, to say how kind, how loyal, how the deceased would have helped anyone and given away their last penny. But in Marlene's case, it is all absolutely true. She never had much, was living in a small terraced house, which she rented, and was very economical
because she had to be. She used to cut one of my children's hair and she would insist that she wanted no payment.  I would have to throw the ten pound note on the floor as we left or surreptitiously slip the money into her bag when she wasn't looking.

My son Daniel and Marlene's son David are great friends. They have known each other since they were three. David and Marlene have lived on their own with no other family members, for ten years. They were very close. Naturally, David is profoundly affected by the loss of his mum. One consolation is that just like his mum, he is a popular person and just as kind. His many friends have gathered round him and offered to stay the night in his house.  If there is any fairness in this world, good things will surely come David's way. He will miss his mum for the rest of his life but, with time's useful healing properties, the fierce ache he feels now will eventually dull.

Marlene's funeral was very well attended and though this is not an original thought about a person who has died, how I wished she could have seen the outpouring of love and grief from those in attendance.

Always well groomed, always a full face of make up, always a kind word, always a pearl of wisdom. How I will miss her.