On Sunday, my wife of nearly 25 years, Carys & I went off to watch a rugby game.  That in itself was a total change, as she had historically hated the game and my love of it.  However, she decided ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ and came with me.  It was a lovely.  After half-time she started complaining about neck pains, so we left.  Before we got to the car she was sick. 

That night she was very floppy and out-of-it.  In the morning she seemed a little better.  To cut a long story short, shortly after 3pm she collapsed and I called an ambulance.  She was rushed to the Royal Surrey, where it slowly became clear that the situation was beyond anything I’d ever imagined.  I then learnt she had had a stroke.  They decided to transfer her to Kings College for emergency surgery, but before I left the doctor warned me that the outlook was not good.

She died that night of a massive brain haemorrhage.

People say “Carpe Diem”, but in reality few of us do.  Make time to kiss your loved one today, to make sure they know how you feel, because just sometimes, that one-in-a-million event that is meant to happen to someone else, happens to you…

Luckily, I think she knew just what we shared and was justly proud of our wonderful family, who have been magnificent.

“Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.”   George Eliot