[Sundae]

Thank you all.
It's tougher than I thought it would be.
Now he's no longer the shell he became in the last week I am free to remember him as he was and that means mourning him.

But he had a long life and in the end a gentle death.
He wouldn't really have planned on 17 years without my Nan, she really was the love of his life. But he was in his own place until February this year. He had as much fried chicken as he wanted up til then. And he was in a stable environment when he died, with staff constantly in attendance in the last hours until they realised the end was coming and called us.

It's not like he was in that awful hospital where he could easily have been dead for hours without anyone noticing.

The staff came in to say goodbye as I was leaving (I came home to start making phone calls) and they were in tears. It was a good place to die, with kind and respectful people. Grandad used to joke that he couldn't understand a word any of them said (the basic carers are mostly Eastern European or Filipino) but he would always smile and nod and joke and they were charmed by his passive smile and gentle demeanor.

They really cared. Even as I was leaving they were bringing in tea for Mum and me. And the Nurse on shift had elected to stay until the Doctor came to sign the death certificate, despite her shift finishing 30 minutes beforehand.

We couldn't have asked for better.