A good friend died today...

[Keeoe]

She was suffering from cancer which had basically spread everywhere. I visited her for the last time on Friday, I didn't go yesterday as she had a few people lined up to go in. I said goodbye to her on Friday and let het know how much she was loved and cared about.

When I got the news today, my first feeling was one of absolute relief for her - she had been suffering terribly. I am of course desperately sad I'll never see her again, but, I feel thankful to have been her friend and such a sense of peace has come over me knowing she is no longer in pain. I knew the day was coming but I expected it to be very different to how it's actually been.

I'm so sorry you have lost your friend. I also lost a close friend to cancer recently; she died earlier this year at the age of 44, and I still can't grasp that she's gone. Like your friend, she didn't give up, and her bloody-mindedness, whilst just what I and others who knew her would have expected, was amazing. You say you were surprised by how fast the end came, and that's how I felt, too. My friend knew that that's how it would be, and we talked about it, so I knew she was scared of going downhill so fast, but I still didn't expect it to be so vicious.

It's too early for you now as it's still raw and new, but after the dust settled a bit, my friend's DH gave me something of hers. Of course I already had things that she herself had given me over the years, but I find it comforting to have something that was hers.