24th September, 2018


What a time this has been. We're beside ourselves with grief, sure, friggin' terrified of how we're going to survive without our beloved Nick, but we must say the outpouring of love and moral support we've experienced from all of you has kept us going. The steady stream of friends (some of whom are our colleagues from SDCI and WCI) and relatives have transformed the Cancer Ward into a party zone. Nurse Diana, and older lady with a stern Slavic/German (?) accent (and a heart of gold) had to reprimand us once. Once is all that's necessary from "she who must obeyed"...    ..."Chu vill be silent, macht schnell!!" 

 Nick's brother, Vincent, has been here at night. He's held up up incredibly well under the circumstances, and we're very proud of him.

 Alex (aka Florence Nightingale) has blown us away with her loving attention to her husband's needs. I think perhaps nursing, as opposed to being a dietitian, will be a more fitting career path for Alex, provided she can overcome her fear of blood. This may be do-able - butterflies, never!

 Nick was fortunately peaceful all night, and did not even groan for his pain meds this morning. He's most likely beyond pain at this point, although he still responds a wee bit. Nick evidently entered this very peaceful state when his friend Leah arrived, set up some crystals and rocks, and performed a chanting ceremony which I unfortunately was absent for,  which was by all acounts beautiful and mesmerising. As a physics teacher, I've always scoffed at 'crystal energy healing' and such things. "Energy is the capacity to do work, is measured in units of joules" has been my mantra to my physics classes. However, as humans, we crave love and, er, "positive energy", and ceremony. It's the humanity, conveyed by symbols -- be they volcano godesses, crucifixes, crystals, wedding rings, music, prayers... -- that heals. I scoff at none of it, and welcome it all. Keep it coming! (Thank you once again, Jaya, for your powerful prayer during our visit with you in Hawaii.)


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