My best friend's mum is dying. She was only diagnosed in May and was up and about for much of the summer, so it seemed very surreal to think she was so ill. Anyway, she has deteriorated rapidly the last few weeks and my bf rang me last night to say she thought her mum only had a couple of weeks left at best and did I want to come and say goodbye while she could still recognise me and was fairly coherent.
So I did, this afternoon, and it broke my heart. We've known each other since I was 12 and she's been a great friend to me independently of her daughter - we often met for coffee, were always texting each other and we had great evenings in drinking wine and judging the Eurovision or Pop Idol with our little score cards and having such a laugh. We share the same birthday and this year we went shopping togther not long after she was diagnosed. She insisted on buying new outfits for my dds ("Sod the cost - I can't take it with me" she said).
She held my hand today and said 'think of me on our birthday' and we both cried and she apologised for making me so upset(!) Her daughters drove her out to the place she wants to be buried yesterday and it's beautiful ('humanist' type place in the country) and she told me all about it and made me promise to take the dds there for picnics.
It's all so surreal. I knew she was dying but now it's close it feels unbelievable again. But I'm so glad I had the chance to say goodbye.