I wish there were a poem, a prayer, some form of spiritual incantation which, if agreed by all parties, could be spoken or sung and would welcome the dying to their new world, and help them fulfil their wish to leave this life, while completely calm, and at peace.

Mum has been pushing the nurses away, not accepting food, or drink, saying ‘I hate you’, then ‘I love you’. She is bent and buckled in bed, her head lolling, wearing a plastic wristband printed with her date of birth, today’s date written on the cannula on her wrist. She’s back on a drip again.

I am locked in discussion with an attractive dietitian. She’s recommending that we consider inserting a feeding tube through Mum’s nose – effectively to force feed her. So much for palliative care. Mum wouldn’t like it. After great heartache my brother and I choose to opt for a ‘sugar’ drip, and to review on Monday.

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I take a ride to Seaford on 1250 Bandit GAO, in MeTime. That there should be waves breaking continually wherever we are; to think that in Eseaford-2ngland we’re never more than 75 miles from the shore; how the sea breathes
something of the eternal; the taste of futures rising like salt on the tongue – the end of one’s existence, catches at the back of the throat, yet even the seagulls seem to live forever.

 

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Zoe Morgan and Lee Simmons, said to be in the ‘first flush of romance’ murdered in Cardiff on Wednesday in the early morning, after a night shift at their work. What jealous rage took their lives? Only in their early 20s and 30s – a community in shock.

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To the sick, vicious, evil of a fourteen year old schoolgirl bundled into a car and raped. Summertown, Oxford. Two white men. How old? That they could have done this, that they should be aroused by this violence on this child. Her youth crushed and taken from her. Our thoughts and love are with her and her family and friends, and with hope for every help for the police.

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The green digits of the alarm clock
fall to empty zeros,
I imagine you dying…
then the number one appears
but there is no phone call,
just the church clock
striking a belated twelve
to the steady sound of snoring.

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Mental health makes national news as the impact of social media on the young is broadcast, following the report I mentioned a few blogs ago. Young girls particularly affected.

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Rosetta’s twelve year mission ends with touchdown on comet 67P (that’s not much for a comet!) – congratulations to the European Space Agency, rewriting the textbooks for years to come!

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On a lighter note, at night, Hoopers refreshes the parts other department stores cannot reach: illuminated curvy female torsos lit up in the windows like light boxes from within, displaying snug, decorative lingerie.

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See Fast Train Approaching… and Voices: mental health survivors, carers, therapist, family and friends

 

 

Blog – Friday 30th September 2016