Category Archives: The Long Goodbye

The rest is silence

Posted on 13/10/2012 by

It’s not silence, of course. Never will be.  I’ll keep talking about my mum – and my dad. They can’t be forgotten, especially as the numbers fall elsewhere, and fewer and fewer people remain who remember them. It’s the words, … Continue reading →

Posted in The Long Goodbye | 4 Comments

Farewell to the famous Thermos

Posted on 14/05/2012 by

It’s been around, that Thermos flask. That’s something my mum would not have imagined when she bought it. For her it was a convenience, something that meant she didn’t have to struggle out of her chair too often for a … Continue reading →

Posted in The Long Goodbye | 1 Comment

14 September 2011: Mum’s 80th birthday

Posted on 15/09/2011 by

Time to take her home. I boarded the Overground from Crystal Palace to Shadwell, then changed to the DLR to Poplar then All Saints. First stop: the pie and mash shop where I guess she would have eaten. One vegetable pie, … Continue reading →

Posted in The Long Goodbye

13 May 2011: 2nd Anniversary

Posted on 01/06/2011 by

I met Andrew back in December 2010 at a party in Soho. We got talking. In February, on our first ‘is-it-a-date-I’m-not-sure-maybe-perhaps’ we discussed (amongst other things of course) death, funerals, ashes and illness. It was much more fun than it … Continue reading →

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13 May 2010: 1st Anniversary

Posted on 14/05/2010 by

I wanted to mark this. It’s what I do, and I seem fairly alone in my family in that sense, although that’s not to say they don’t remember in their own way. Realising how upset I was that no one … Continue reading →

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14 March 2010: Mother’s Day

Posted on 30/03/2010 by

My parents used to spend their holiday in Ramsgate, and they would walk to Broadstairs, a few miles along the coast. When my brother and I came along I remember playing on the beach, the trampolines that were embedded in … Continue reading →

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28 November 2009: Christmas Shopping

Posted on 30/11/2009 by

The last weekend in November/first in December was our annual Christmas shopping trip. I’d go to her home in Laindon for the weekend, and we’d go into Basildon with our list and get our relatives’ presents together. We’d have lunch … Continue reading →

Posted in The Long Goodbye