I had a call from my cousin, Chris, this morning, with the sad news that my Auntie Jean died this morning. My Mum’s younger sister, Jean had been in hospital for two or three months with heart problems. Even so, the news came as an awful shock.
Jean has always been there for me, especially in the difficult days following Mummy’s stroke. She and Chris kept an eye on things in Hull when we were so far away and nothing was ever too much trouble for her. She was my Mum’s champion and could be relied upon to speak up on her sister’s behalf if anything was not quite how it should be. On more than one occasion, I was grateful to her for doing exactly that.
Since the call this morning, I’ve found myself doing what we all do at times like this – remembering, wondering, mulling things over. Realising that it’s down to Chris and I now both “Courtney girls” are gone.
That’s hard.
A strange coincidence though, as I listened to the radio as I drove to Birmingham yesterday morning and the DJ played The Monkees’ “Daydream Believer” which featured on the very first LP record I owned…bought for me by my Auntie Jean, for passing my 11+.