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 need them and they need me to need them

Learning is important. It is a way to make a life better for yourself and your family.

Try to capture what you can't bear to be without

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

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

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