Jenny hurtled into the past tense.

In my head I’ve written this several times. I have written a draft for my blog, but it’s not finished. It doesn’t matter how it’s written, it always ends the same way.

The photo is of my partner, Jenny, when we were in Battle - actually we were staying in Eastbourne, both of these places are in Sussex. It was mid April this year. We were enjoying the holiday. Her craving for ‘ready’ green leaf salads probably started before we got to Eastbourne. We might be going somewhere, and she’d say ‘we’ve got to get green leafy first’. There was an urgency about it, but we also had a laugh about it. I think she said she’d never had a craving before.

In June the stomach aches started, and then a whole lot more. Tests and more tests. Blood tests, MRI, CT Scan, Colonoscopy and so on. Back and forth to GP and hospital. Diagnosed with bowel cancer in July. By that time we realised the cancer was stealing her iron, so that’s why she needed her ‘green leafy’. Then in August we found out the cancer had extended to other organs. Only palliative care now, as the cancer was terminal. Then a further complication, and her ‘life expectancy’ dropped dramatically to just a few days. She died 1 September 2018 in a hospice.

My thoughts are with Jenny. I know there are many who are trying to come to terms with her death.

Many thanks to family and friends of both of us, to the NHS, and to the Arthur Rank Hospice Charity in Cambridge.

(Originally posted to my Facebook page 8 October 2018)