The death of Helen’s Mum

I’m writing this on the 10th of February, as I haven’t had a chance to write the blog beforehand as it’s been a rather busy end of January.

Unfortunately on the 1st of February my mum died after 2 1/2 weeks in hospital with pneumonia, which progressed to multi-organ failure and a pulmonary embolism. I was able to visit her for four days when she first went into hospital but went back to Germany and made arrangements with my employer to possibly work from home in England if Mum needed looking after when she came out of hospital, In the end we got the call from Ipswich Hospital to come as soon as we could. Klaus and I drove to the UK, but of course this took eight hours via Eurotunnel, but Anna arrived to spend 10 minutes or so with Mum before she died.

Since then I have been working flat out and making arrangements for the funeral, dealing with mums estate, and all the other things that happen. I’m exhausted, and of course we’re all really sad to have had to say goodbye to Mum so early and so quickly. But on the other hand, we know that she would’ve hated becoming dependent which would probably have been the situation when she came out of hospital if she had survived this.

Here is a photo taken of Mum and me together in the hospital when I visited.

We are returning to England in a week’s time (I am writing this on February 15) for the funeral.

My Mum was a wonderful person and much loved by so many people. The villagers in Witnesham have been incredibly supportive too – Anna and I are both very grateful for the many ways in which they have helped Mum and are now helping us.

Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh.