[Sundae]

Mum's friend Breda died last night after a pretty damned short battle with cancer.

Mum blamed herself, because Breda had some of the same symptoms as her mother (Nan) did and she thinks she should have seen it. I pointed out to her that if she went around diagnosing friends with cancer, she'd work through them pretty quickly. It's up to doctors to diagnose after all. And it didn't help that Breda had been given a rambunctious chocolate Lab as a present (I agree with Mum, completely unsuitable) who was yanking her arm off on walks every day. Why would you assume arm and shoulder pain was a symptom of cancer?

Anyway. I am glad she's dead simply because we all knew it was coming and all that was left to her in life was pain. She died before she had to go onto the really heavy duty drugs. Also, a devoted Catholic all her life, she received Communion and Last Rites before she died.

She was the archetypal Irish mother - sorry, might not have mentioned she was Irish, although with a name like Breda... Her house was always an open house. She'd give you the shirt off her back and the last teaspoon out of her silver. She had time for everyone. Christmases when I came home to visit the 'rents, I was always invited over. I'd sit in her overheated, stuffy house, and be plied with sherry, mince pies, sausage rolls, and told what a saint my mother was. Then she'd shake her head at how glamorous I was, and tell me how proud my Mum was of me and how she talked about me all the time. She ignored how fat I was and complimented my hair, my skin, my clothes.

Okay, she spun a yarn. The weakness of the Irish.

If I believed in God I'd say Breda was what he had in mind when he created the human race. Instead, I just have to stick with saying she was a beautiful human person. She touched many people and will be missed.