Yesterday my Mum’s identical twin sister died, three months to the day after my Mum died. This hideous disease took them on different journeys but they had similar endings. I should have known my aunt wouldn’t hang around long after Mum went – they had been inseparable in spirit for 85 years and were only really happy when they were together. I don’t know if my aunt was aware that Mum had died – I didn’t tell her because there was no point; someone may have done, or perhaps she just knew. It is all the more final now that my aunt has gone – while she was still alive it seemed a part of Mum was still here. There is no grief that they have gone, only that their lives ended in the manner they did. The grieving came a few years ago when they stopped being the loving, funny, bubbly, capable people I had known all my life - and became anxious shadows of their former selves, the disease driving them apart. Now they are together again and at peace and for that I am thankful.
C
C
