Surface Area 221.7

On this day last year we ran my mum’s obituary in the newspaper. I did not see it in print that day as I did not have the heart.

We get the newspapers every day in the office so I asked a colleague to keep a copy for me that I would get from her when I was back in the office in February. True to her word she kept it for me and I retrieved it from her the week after I resumed work. I opted to wait until I got home in the evening to view the obituary as I would be seeing it in print for the first time and I was not sure I would be able to keep it together. Long story short, I made the right decision to view it in private.

My mum lived for 58 years. 58 is not young but neither is it old. She never lived to see any of her children get married, let alone get engaged. She never got to hold any of her grandchildren in her arms. She should have had many more years ahead of her. Cancer stole those years from her. Fuck cancer.

I wrote the obituary together with one of my brothers as I could not do it alone. I needed help with some of the details of her life. My mum had lived for 58 years and had been so many things to so many people in that time. Yet at the end the announcement of her death had to fit within a quarter page in the newspaper. A measly 16.3 cm x 13.6 cm. Surface area 221.7.

This post is the shortest I have ever written yet it is approximately 100 words more than my mum’s obituary. How sad.