Late yesterday afternoon after the front grassed area had been cut, my son and I settled down and had some quiet time with Meg who was sleeping largely peacefully. My son stayed with us until the point at which a Chinese meal which he had ordered arrived. Our plan is to keep this in the fridge overnight and then to have it as a family meal with my son and daughter-in-law later on in the day. This then keeps the following day, Sunday which is my 80th birthday absolutely clear so that the party that has been organised for me by my friends down the Kidderminster Road can take place in the hotel which is conveniently situated about 200 yards away. At the appointed time, two young male carers who know Meg very well came around and all they had to do was to ensure that Meg was comfortable so that, hopefully, she could have another peaceful night. They were the epitome of lave and tenderness as they have been attending to Meg's needs for the best part of a year. One of them is going to have a career in the army and is well certificated in First Aid as well as military First Aid so he is very well informed about things like the rattle in Meg's throat which alarmed me somewhat yesterday but has now largely abated. The Asian male carer even kissed Meg goodnight which, of course I doubt is. sign of the affection in which Meg is held. After they had left, I consulted my phone and found the magnificent news that the one of our Erasmus students who works in the Complutense University of Madrid had organised a flight and was due to leave Madrid at 6.30 in the morning. Her text told me that she was coming via Paris and I have to make the supposition that this was the best way to arrive at Birmingham airport later on Saturday morning. I checked the arrivals schedule for Birmingham airport for morning flight and, indeed, two flights from Paris are due to land in the morning so I trust our dear friend is on one of them. She has evidently managed to get a visa in double quick time which is of course excellent news hen time is of the essence which it is at the moment. I cannot express how wonderful I feel that our ex-student and now lifelong friend is making this journey but it is a sign of the affection that in which Meg is held that they wish to jump on a plane and pay Meg a visit. It had been our intention to do exactly the same in the opposite direction to attend the funeral of the professor at the Complutense, Mariano Baena, upon his demise but it came at a time when Meg and I could no longer just jump on a flight and we only found out after the event of his funeral in any case. Our friend is so well organised that she has even booked a room in the hotel across the road although we could easily have accommodated her here had she so wished, and we had more time to discuss practical details. No sooner had I absorbed these details when the doorbell rang and it was our very good Irish friend from down the rod who called round with a huge bunch of lilies for Meg and also a flask of holy water brought all the way from Lourdes (devout Catholics will often ask friends who have been on pilgrimage to Lourdes in France to bring them back some Holy Water for occasions especially like this) You may call this peasant religion but it is really emotionally uplifting as well as a great source of comfort. My friend and I had a lot to discuss and for me to show my friend as well. The most important thing I managed to show her was the card signed by her Erasmus conference colleagues which was full of apposite comments such as 'We miss you Meg' which of course has an added poignancy at this time. I have plans for this which is, after consultation with translation facilities on the web, to take each of the comments on the card (written in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian as the conference participants were all linguists) and then to make a little display showing the comments in their original and then the translation and this will be a fitting tribute to Meg in what her probably her finest and happiest hours. The second thing I had to show our friend was the photograph I discovered when I was tidying up the study and it is an A4 photograph of myself and Meg standing in front of the (huge) Lincoln memorial in Washington, USA. I had attended the conference when I was accumulating conference papers for my PhD and I willingly paid for Meg to accompany me but I think this must have been the best part of thirty years ago. The third bit of memorabilia I showed our friend was the original organist's notes for the music played at our wedding in September, 1967, and this bit of paper is more than 57 years old. The final thing I showed our friend was to play a rendition on the IBM ThinkPad of the recently downloaded Handel aria 'Waft her, angels, through the skies' which, of course at the moment reduces me within seconds to floods of tears. We had had some really practical things to discuss for the forthcoming 'surprise' birthday bash to be held by my friends for me in the hotel across the road in view of the circumstances that pertain at the moment. Meg died peacefully, and in no pain, at 2.39 on Saturday afternoon, surrounded by family and friends and at peace with the world.
These are strange times for me to be living through at the moment because there are not many occasions when one has to say goodbye to a lifelong partner whom I have known for nearly sixty years and been married to for over 57½ years But I have my tidying up agenda as well as longer plans to visit family (in Yorkshire) and friends (in Spain), Yesterday, I had turned my attention to the table Meg used in the kitchen as her desk and is now occupied by several files, stuffed full of medical and social care details. I have completed the task of clearing the desk top but the final task is to go through each of the bulky files and prune then down. I have processed one labelled as 'Health' which contains stuff accumulated over the years that can now be safely discarded.
© Mike Hart [2025]