I have been AWOL these last weeks, and have sad news to impart. I got the news that my little sister Liz had been taken seriously ill a couple of weeks ago and made my way down to Dorset post-haste, as I was told that she wouldn't have long to live. She passed away last week, and I was able to tell her I loved her whilst she could still understand. I'm due down again next week for the funeral.
I want this to be the very briefest of solemn notes in what is a ray of sunshine of a site, no long strings of "my condolences, Malc", I know you are all very nice people, so there's no need. Liz had a very severe drink problem, due to a depressive state, and unfortunately she couldn't cope with a lot of life's hard knocks in the end. She basically drank herself to death. Naturally that doesn't detract from the fact she was my little sister, and I still think of a thousand ways we might have done something differently so that she was still with us.
Liz was a tough cookie, seven kids from two relationships, one who died as an infant, and you couldn't tell her anything, yet she loved without counting the cost. Her home was an open house, and it seemed the whole world was free to traipse in through her front door, walk into the kitchen and light up a ciggie. She was penniless, yet seemingly gave away stuff every day, including her time, her trouble and her heart. Even at the last, she had taken in a troubled kid permanently. He had arrived, like a stray, and liked it at her house so he asked to stay. Liz said yes. That's what she was like. Goodbye darling. I love you.
