Facing The End

When I was my daughter's age there were my parents, aunts and uncles.  People I looked up to.  They were the ageless people that worked, were parents, knew stuff.  They were just there.

My grandparents and their friends were the old people, the old generation.

I lost my father 20 years ago. My grandparents too.  I have now started to notice those ageless aunts and uncles are becoming old people.  That generation.

So I, in turn, have become one of them, as I saw them.

I feel that I am becoming the carer (who will still care for me).  I have a responsibility as a mother and as a daughter and niece.  Stuck in the middle with a weight to carry.

I see my wrinkled eyes in the rear view mirror and know that very soon, too soon, that I will become like them.

'The cancer has spread to his lungs, kidneys, liver, neck'

Yes, it will have done, that's what it does in our family. It is in our genes. No one escapes it.

No one.