This story was inspired by the death of my much loved Auntie Mary earlier this year. Those weary hours spent in a flat empty of her smile and dry humour, yet surrounded by memories and the evidence of a long and interesting life triggered the need to write this story. There were regrets that I didn't know her better, and the wish that I had been given more time to become her friend rather than just her niece. The weeks I spent with her went too quickly, but then it always does when you have no idea that a card has been marked and time is running out.
I miss her. I wish I had not neglected her in the years before she came to live near us. Yes, I am grateful she had a peaceful death surrounded by family and that she had a few months with us before the end, but they do not outweigh the regrets for the years before. I could have been a better niece, I should have been. However, the young get caught up in their own lives and old people get sidelined as we live our lives in the sunshine, believing we will never be that old, and surely if we are we will still be interesting and lively.
So, take time out and spend some hours with your elderly relatives. They won't always be with us and you'll regret it if you don't. They're interesting, funny and wise.
This story is dedicated to Mary Louisa Bella Fox
22nd December 1939 - 11th January 2012
God bless you and rest in peace, Auntie. Always loved and always missed. Thank you, for your support and the confidence you gave me last year when I first joined Wattpad. Maybe, one day, one of these will be published, like you predicted.
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Her Garden Angel - Book 4, The Porth Kerensa Series
General FictionWhen Rachel returns home to visit her dying grandmother she discovers that even the people we love most in the world are not always what we believe them to be. Rachel must deal with her own ghosts from the past as well as her gran's.
