Thanks all, it was sad of course, but we'd pretty much prepared for it happening. She was so fit and hale three years ago until she broke her hip and became wheelchair bound - the deteriorated significantly since then, so we knew it wasn't long and I'd pretty much steeled myself for it happening. I just didn't expect it to happen when we were on holidays.
But in a way it was probably a blessing for my dad as he didn't have to watch her pass on - he was a wreck as it was. They were VERY close - I think of the 58 years of life he had they were separated for two years. It was my first experience with death at a mature age - my grandpa died when I was 10 so I was a bit too young to understand.
We got the news when we were driving on the autostrade near Pescara midway between Assisi and San Giovanni on Italy's northeast coast, on Easter Saturday. We thought of turning back then and there to go back to Rome, but since we didn't have any numbers for Cathay Pacific and no idea about whether or not we were even going to be able to fly back the next day, we decided to push on to San Giovanni that night, get to our hotel, make the calls and the bookings, then drive back to Rome early the next day. We got to San G about 11pm, attended Easter Vigil Mass which we were just in time for, the Mass finished at 2am, we got to our hotel, I got about 2 hours sleep then we were up at 4 to drive back to Roma, which was about 600kms away. So I basically drove about 1100kms in 13 hours with about 2 hours sleep, without really knowing the way.
Then at the airport we had to run around with all the bookings etc which was a massive pain given the circumstances - but in a way all the activity and adrenaline meant that we didn't really have time to grieve and so it didn't hit us as hard as we thought it would. By the time we got to Manila it was just sadness at losing a loved one, rather than mindless grief.
I'm ok with it now, she did live a long and fabulous life. Would have been nice to get a century but 95 is a damn good innings. I owe my ability to speak and understand Spanish to her, she devoted her whole life to us while we were kids. I'll miss her but I know she's in a better place, without suffering, and I've made made my peace with that. For my dad, it might take a bit longer, but we all have to move on.
Thank you very much everyone for your support. It does mean a lot. [img]smile.gif[/img]
[ 04-22-2004, 04:03 AM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]