An Empty Space

I went very quiet for a spell. Horrible things happened in the family; having already lost my sister to breast cancer several years before, my dear brother died very suddenly after a short illness. He had been absolutely fine until one day he couldn't breathe. Turned out that he had cancer of the kidney which had spread to his lungs. What was really upsetting was that the scans showed he had been born with only one kidney, something that no-one knew about. He died three weeks after diagnosis, the week before Christmas.  On top of that, my sister-in-law had died of lung cancer a few weeks before and I lost the remnants of my already poor hearing. So there I was, with no siblings and no hearing and there was so much to do! 

The three of us 

Work became impossible because I couldn't use the telephone and despite attempts by Occupational Health to find something suitable, I decided to give up. Thankfully, this gave me the space and time I needed for the huge task of sorting out my brother's flat. He lived alone and had collected thousands of books. I had very little choice but to take them home. They sat piled up, three-deep, against the living-room wall for over a year until I felt able to deal with them. I gave most of them to Oxfam. 

Through all of this, I was still trying to write but everything was too soulful and morose. I needed a new and optimistic challenge and I was to find it in a very unusual place!