Loss

Dear Anyone,

The past few days have been quite hard in my family. My uncle - my dad's older brother - died on Easter Sunday, while on holiday in Ghana, and it was such a shock as none of us knew he was even ill.

He had a stroke seven years ago, and although there was nothing wrong with his mind, his body was paralysed on one side, so he'd been in a wheelchair ever since. But every time he goes to Ghana, he has treatment and responds so well to it, that the doctors are always hopeful that he'd walk again. I guess that's not going to happen now.

My cousin Diggy is absolutely devastated as you would imagine. She was basically a daddy's girl, she'd even tell you that herself, and she was looking forward to her parents returning next month. When I'd found out and managed to get in touch with her, she was completely incoherent through her wailing, but she calmed down a little later. My brothers and I went to see her on Sunday night, and I offered to stay with her (as she is in the house alone) but she said that she wanted to be by herself with her dad's blanket. However, she sent me a text early yesterday morning asking if I could come and stay the night, so of course I did, and I had already text my manager to tell her what had happened and that I wouldn't be at work.

I've come to work from Diggy's house today, and I'm quite tired, because her brother also stayed over and we didn't go to bed till quite late. But more than that I'm just worried for Diggy and for my dad. My dad lost his other brother to a stroke just over 23 years ago, and now his last surviving brother has gone. Their mum died a couple of years ago too. Now he's going to have the stress of arranging a funeral and being strong for my aunty and everyone else, and that makes me worry about his own health. Strokes are rife in our family, as is high blood pressure. If something happened to my dad.....well it doesn't bear thinking about. And the worst thing (well not the worst) is that just over a week ago Diggy and I were talking about one of our friends who has just lost her mum, and how we wouldn't know what to do if it happened to us. Now this.

I'm going to do my very best to be as supportive as I can. It's just a pity that work gets in the way of life, or I'd be able to give her more of my time.

Rest in peace Uncle. You've been able to escape that body. xx