After a lifetime's independence– yes, selfish independence as my daughter would rightly claim – I am terrified of being reduced to childhood once more, to helplessness, to seas of confusion from which the cruel lucid intervals poke up like rock shoals.

I will continue my path, but I will keep a memory always.

Anything that makes it easier to understand, makes it a little easier to bear.

Let her be with her memories. Better that than be aware of this reality.

Death, when it's right there it doesn't seem too huge and terrible to let into your mind.

I need them and they need me to need them

Christmas works like glue, it keeps us all sticking together.