Face to face with death is when your courage is tested down to the last nut and bolt. She was a brave lady. Fought cancer for three fearsome years, endured all the pain of secondaries in the bone, lungs and finally liver and brain. And the horrors of chemotherapy.

She never once complained, or whined (the way I do).

That lovely face with the hint of a smile even in the desolate stillness of death after a life that never had anything good for her from childhood makes me feel like a worm. She had no complaints. No grudges. No ill feelings towards the people who had hurt her so deeply.

We will miss you. You have left us feeling that the world which produced a person like you cannot be all that bad.

Goodbye for now. I am sure we will meet again.