It's been somewhat rocky here of late, and not of the preparing for the festivities kind of turbulence.
Sadly, my aunt (I previously posted about her here and here) passed away last week. The plan back in June was for her to receive a couple of weeks of rehabilitation in the care home before returning to her own home with support services. But, following a (not completely surprising) diagnosis of Alzheimer's and a fairly rapid deterioration, she remained in residential care.
The last few weeks have been spent sorting and emptying her house and handing it back to the landlord, a social housing provider who, perhaps understandably, was chomping at the bit. There was a mountain of papers (she'd kept every postcard I'd ever sent), documents and photographs, all going back donkey's years, every scrap of which had to be checked, though most ended up in the bin. To be honest, the majority of her stuff ended up at the council tip, which was distressing to manage, with some of the better bits going to the charity shop.
I seem to have been permanently attached to the phone. Of course, there's been all the official notifying and informing and closing down which always takes longer than you imagine it will. And various relatives, who hadn't had any contact with Aunty M (or me, for that matter) for a number of years, suddenly want to spend hours chatting about her and generally poking their noses in.
The funeral is taking place a couple of days before Christmas, not quite the lead-up activity I was hoping for but it's that final goodbye that just has to be said.
There was some welcome light relief yesterday as the Boy and I spent the day in London, a day out we'd planned months ago, which provided the opportunity to read for a couple of hours on the train, eat delicious food, walk by the river, browse the stalls at a couple of markets, listen to the carol singers, talk about normal stuff and just breathe out.
It was a really good day.
Though I'm fairly sure that's the first time I've returned from a trip to London with a cauliflower.