Coping.......

def:  To deal successfully with a difficult situation

This just about sums up my life for the last week.  There have been some horrible low points, but most of it has been me surviving by shutting myself off and existing in an emotional void, not thinking too hard about things and, yes, coping.

Mum and my sister are still down with dad's partner, but will come back tomorrow.  The death has been registered and the process of arranging probate etc is underway - In his attempt to convince himself, and probably everyone else, that he wasn't as ill as he really was - let alone that there was the potential that he could die - dad didn't get round to making a will.... which means everything is rather a mess.

We finally have the date and time for the funeral..... but it won't be for another week and a bit.  As it's our, rather unusual family, the funeral will be lead by my mum, who will give the main speech, then everyone there will be invited to say a brief something about dad if they want to.  Both my sister and I don't think we are going to be able to speak though.  So instead, we are putting together a memorial brochure to give to everyone attending (kind of like an order of service for a non religious funeral).  It's going to have photos of dad, and probably us, and some of our favourite memories of the things we shared with him. 

Putting this together is difficult... we want to laugh at some of the lighter memories, but more often than not end up in tears..... which I am off to do yet again...... I should buy shares in Kleenex!

I leave you with a picture of George.......... when i got my first house back in 2000 I already had 3 dogs, but desperately wanted a cat.  Enter George and his brother Henry from the Cats Protection League.  Sadly Henry had a fatal allergic reaction to flea drops after which George was very lonely and whilst I was all for getting another cat to keep him company my dad insisted he go home with him to live with their other cats.  For the last 3 years George has been dad's constant companion.  He's fifteen now, and a rather grumpy old thing.  He's missing dad and spends a lot of time curled up in the chair they used to share.