cancer – Alice… what's the matter?

Your story

It hurts our hearts that you are gone, and this is now the end of the story of a lovely wife, mother, grandma, sister, friend. You’re spoken of in such fond ways, by everyone you’ve met. Your kindness and your lovely smile they never will forget. You’re still here in our photographs; In voicemails on…More

Here’s a wish (poem)

Picture now, if you will, a girl sat on a plastic chair; Some flowers on the windowsill, her mother, frightened, lying there. Mother and father worked so hard to raise their daughters every day, and now it seems that life’s reward is their retirement, snatched away. In hospital there’s nothing subtle: Lights so harsh…More

All you have to do is call

Dear Mum and Dad Hello! There, that seems innocuous enough, doesn’t it. As I don’t know where to start, I’ll start somewhere fun. It’s been nice to spend a bit of time with you over the last few months for all the good reasons we’ve had to get together; what with my 40th birthday party,…More

Say what you need to say

My New Year’s resolution for 2014 was stolen from a friend. He frequently advises people to stop and then think about what they think they need to say, and test it against these three questions: “Is it true? Is it kind? Does it need to be said?” He asserts that only if something satisfies all…More

Do You Realize?

I don’t spend a lot of my time thinking about cancer, luckily. I decided that it wasn’t healthy for me to do that and I backed away from a lot of the activity that I was involved in. I stopped reading a lot of the blogs and posts that I’d found so helpful day-to-day in…More