Tuesday 25th October 2011

Yesyerday Dr A phoned me from Darwin to let me know that Helen is deteriorating again. Apparently she has been even more sleepy, is drinking less and eating less and seems likely to have another urinary tract infection which is not going to be treated this time. Louis is still in Darwin although he will leave tomorrow to come down to Natimuk for my 40th birthday party. Dr A (or course) can't give me any kind of timeline for Helen's death and it is possible she will still be alive when I return on the 14th but it is also possible she may die before either Louis or I can be there again. I have accepted this already (and in fact there's many times when each of us thought she might not be there when we returned from somewhere or other) however it does feel odd and frivolous to be so resolutely absent at the end having been so resolutely present for much of the last two years. Should she happen to die really soon we will at least have a bit of a gathering of our blood family already assembled in Natimuk. The plan to defer our funeral in Darwin until at least late November will stand. Whenever she dies it will be both sad and...OK....and as one of my friend said to me last night "If there's one thing I know about your mother it's that she has impeccable timing" so no doubt it will be a well chosen moment.