The past couple of weeks have been the longest year of my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My mother died on the 29th from Covid. She had caught it at her final chemo appointment – the second time she had beat cancer. Because it was in Ireland, we have a very different set of rituals that we go through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of the process dragging on, and the proceedings needing to wait until after the death certificate is issued, the Irish tradition is to get it all over and done with and then process the grief after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have spent so much of the last two weeks just crying and trying not to be angry at small talk from strangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My mother was loved by a lot of people, to the point where she had met Princess Alexandra and separately been invited to Buckingham Palace for her work in the YMCA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n