As I sit by nana’s bedside I am feeling the true power of love. She has always been my special friend, she has always been the person who I feel understands me the most. Why? Because like her I try and live a good life and yet I also have a little rebellious side.
Sat singing to her I have this overwhelming love, as though my body and heart wants to give her all the love inside.
When you are losing someone, love suddenly becomes so clear. Love is unconditional, love is pure, love in the end is all that matters.
I truly …read more

Funny after going 3 nights without sleep or at least only cat naps by Nana’s bed…I still feel Ok. Yet if I only get 6 hrs on a ‘normal’ day I feel tired…when you are with someone so ill, so tired then this energy comes from nowhere. I suppose that it is not then a shock that your body needs time to recover through the grieving process.
The hospital offered us a room. Mum grabbed a few hours each night in there but when you are here, you just want to hold them and let them know they are not alone. …read more

I have had people close to me suffer from brain injuries and in that sense I have become almost obsessed with understanding the brain. I have just exchanged some emails on traumatic brain injuries and thought I would share with you some interesting research by Steven Joyal MD in case we have readers who know someone with a brain injury
Women often recover better from traumatic brain injury than men. Now, scientists believe they understand why.
In the first successful trial on victims of traumatic brain injury in nearly forty years, scientists believe a natural hormone offers …read more

There are some news stories that send shivers down my spine, there are some stories that make my heart for the grief that people are feeling.
Yesterday, in the UK Staff nurse Colin Norris was sentenced for 4 murders and an attempted murder. The reports says
“During his campaign of murder he believed he could kill with impunity, claiming four “frail and helpless” victims within six months by injecting them with lethal doses of insulin.”
Wow, this story really affects me as when you are in hospital – as I was at Christmas and due to go in again soon – you …read more

I have started to love twitter, because of the community feel, the fact that despite working from home I never feel alone and also the power of it.
One of the community, is a wonderful lady called Susan Reynolds who found out that she had breast cancer. To ease the pain she used a bag of frozen peas. When her twitter friends found out, they changed their pictures to frozen peas, sent her messages of support and also raised money for charity. The Washington post picked up on the story – How Frozen Peas Started a Movement. It is worth reading …read more

Three years ago this winter, I came as close as I ever care to come to widowhood, and it has forever changed me. I was 36, and Marshall and I were approaching our second anniversary (and 5th year of being together). In August, I was cutting his hair, which I do every month (like it or not), and a few days after that, he had a small pimple come up on the back of his neck. I noticed it, but it wasn’t until a few days after that that I noticed that it was getting larger and …read more

I saw that Kelly Brook who is competing on the UK version of Strictly Come Dancing has just lost her father to cancer
“Grief-stricken Kelly Brook plans to dedicate her next performance in Strictly Come Dancing to her father after he died on Monday.
Miss Brook, 28, said she was determined to plough on with the show because it was what her father Kenneth Parsons would have wanted.
Scaffolder Mr Parsons died at the family home in Kent at the age of 57 after a lengthy battle with lung cancer.”
Wow, I remember losing Dad – 8.08pm on 5 November 2003 to be precise …read more

I was so sad to see the BBC news and hear about the death of Jane Tomlinson. The tributes were led by Gordon Brown who said ….
“he is “saddened” by the death of Jane Tomlinson following her seven-year battle with cancer.
He paid tribute to the charity fund-raiser’s “amazing spirit and strength” following her death on Monday at the age of 43. The married mother-of-three died at St Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds.She was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2000 and told she had just six months to live.”
Jane’s only desire was to raise the awareness of cancer, she spent …read more

My nana is coming up to 100 years old and I fear the call that says that she is no longer with us. She is special to me, she has been part of my life…I love her to bits. I know that she will not be with us forever but no matter how hard I try, I cannot face not having her there.
We all have said “They died of old age” well I have just read this article in the Dallas News   that says that old age is not a cause of death. It states
“ At the federal level, …read more

Cancer is an illness that no doubt has touched all our families in one way or another. I still find it amazing all the advances in science and we still struggle to find a cure for cancer. I was reading in the Boston Globe about their journey to improve deaths from cancer. Mind you I always smile as my nan is 97, smoked all her life, presently at about 40 a day and has a horrific diet of high fat! We keep telling her that smoking is not good for her health, she looks and says when you get to …read more