With the death of a loved one, particularly the one with whom you had imagined spending the rest of your life, it is easy to fall into the trap of seeing that the story has come to a close, the book has ended.

Ever since it has just been me and my three boys going through life together, friends and strangers alike at some point seem to say something like, “It must be so difficult, you do so much, you are doing so well”.

Whilst having a sort out of some boxes the other day I found a smart bulb. It was originally purchased so that my wife, when not feeling well, could turn the main bedroom light on and off without getting out of bed. Throughout the house we have dimmers and, whilst the bulb worked, the dimmer […]

A few days ago we reached the anniversary of the death of Lizzie, my wife and mother of my three children. Last month was difficult with the dark nights, cold weather, and a general pessimism in the world thanks to Covid 19. By comparison, November has, surprisingly, been much better emotionally but not without its […]

A year ago this week, in October 2019, my wife was moved to a hospital in Oxford to have an emergency shunt fitted in an attempt to relieve the pressure and fluid build-up around her brain. It was not an easy task to even get her there and the surgery was only one part of […]

In September, Google sent me one of it’s regular “Today, 1 year ago. Today, 2 years ago” messages. It looks through your photo archives and shows you photos from years past. Usually, it is quite a nice feature. This time though, a picture of my wife and our boys at a fundraising fete brought back […]

The last few days, and in particular yesterday, have been momentous. Not momentous on a global scale, a national scale, or even regional scale. On a very local level, the household level, in fact, the last few days have been so very important. To anyone else, the occurrences that have, well, occurred might seem mundane, […]

I like to play the piano. I am OK at it. Better than many people, but nowhere near a professional player. I play jazz standards and similar and I really enjoy it. I also play with a group of others in the band “Sparkies Jazz” even though we haven’t gigged in a while and our […]

The reduced traffic of lockdown meant I arrived at the burial ground in almost half the time I had allowed. I had received numerous message of support in the morning. As I pulled into the car park a friend called to let me know they were thinking of me. She asked if I was ok. […]