A GOOD time, not a long time. Enjoy it.

The resilience people show on a day to day basis is astounding and it never ceases to amaze me.

My good friend and incredible artist is just making her way back to work following the sudden and unexpected passings of two of her very closest family members within just a few months. The dignity with which she negotiated the process of mourning was incredible, and her ability to pick herself up after this most incredibly tough time is a real credit to her, but it was so grossly unfair to have happened to her in the first place. I don't think I'd have been quite as dignified.

So, I find it incredible and utterly unbelievable that my wonderful sister-in-law-to-be, who has already kicked the butt of the "C" word already, is having to summon all her strength and courage to do it all over again. I also find it incredible that this happens after my brother in law meets the woman of his dreams, after a horrific "previous life" and years of unhappy singledom, and this is how they will have to spend their period of being newlyweds, fighting it all over again.

My other good friend is in the process of kicking it's butt, she's doing incredibly and I'm so very proud of her, graciously giving it "the bird" at every possible opportunity, despite her being, like my sister in law, (in my opinion) one of the people in the world for whom this is a total and utter injustice. The Mumatron, being a marvelous example that it can be done.

Having all this occupying our minds on a frequent basis, when hubby and I received news of our super best friend's head injury, we begrudgingly took it on the chin and once again tried to gather our strength to support the ones we love. Steve spent a week with his bezzie mate in the last month, to try to make things a little easier for all concerned, we hope it helped. But we wish we could do more. Receiving a phone call yesterday to tell us that there is damage to the brain when it was previously thought that there wasn't, was a bit of a kick in the teeth, once again, for all concerned. I'm sure the damage is repairable, it had better be.

So, given all this, it was rather a shock to find out that my step-father in law, is considerably worse than we had thought. As is often the case when news like this is received, it's the nearest and dearest that take the hardest hit, and frankly, we're all rather concerned about my lovely Mum-in-law and the other couple of nearest. It's news that I don't think any of us could ever really deal with, and we hope to goodness we never have to deal with. Trying to support a loved one while grieving so very deeply ourselves is a nigh on impossible task.

We all through around sayings like "at least we have our health" and "live for the moment" but we never really appreciate what we are saying until it's utterly unescapable. The clarity that comes with a prognosis or an expectation is unique, it's just such a massive shame that we can't keep it in or everyday lives.