I try to call home every week or 10 days to catch up on news. Both my Mum amd sister are really good at bringing you up to speed on many things that re going on. But so many funerals?
Even if in their opinion nothing has happened they manage to tell you a ton of stuff. I enjoy listening. Mum’s story this week had that undercurrent of black humour but I am sure she was just saying what happened.
She invited me round for tea but when I got there she was dead
Mum is 83, exactly 30 years older than me but at least 30 times more active, at home and in the community. Part of her being active involves supporting the older people in the local neighbourhood, of which apparently she is not one. So nothing unusual when she steps in to carry the tea tray for a local “Knit and natter” club — more than natter than knit in her words.
So in the same way that she fills me in about a school friend’s promotion or updates me on recent home purchases she just casually tells the tale: “I went round for the meeting and when I got there I found the paramedics outside. My friend’s daughter was on the front lawn and told me that she had just found her Mum dead in her chair”.
Another online funeral — nicely done as far as these things can be. Mum has been telling me these stories of friends coming to the end of their time for years now. So what’s her recipe for long life? I guess keeping active in mind and body. 10km walking most days, swimming three times per week until they closed the pool for covid and then a school PE teacher’s diet that denies the existence of salt or anything fried.
Looking forward to the next episode.