Thank you for being a friend

To Tim. Thank you for being such a good companion to my mother. Your company for fourteen years made her life very much fuller than it would otherwise have been. You were always there when she needed someone to talk to and helped her make friends with other people who she’d never have met otherwise. It would have been very easy for her to become reclusive in the years after after dad’s death, but having you to care for prevented that. It’s a shame you and Piglet hated each other, but he doesn’t make friends easily, and after all he was in your house. (And he’s not as lovely as the girls, who you always welcomed with joy!)

Don’t blame Mother for helping you cross the stair to your next stage of existence. It wasn’t an easy decision for her, and she was undecided for some days, but took her cue from you. Yesterday evening, when you hadn’t stood up all day, you waited till she’d steeled herself and actually picked up the telephone before you got to your feet and walked slowly across the hall to have a drink. She put down the phone and cried with relief. But that was your last great effort, and today even that was too much for you.

I hope you’ll now be playing with Lizzie and Rupert, Ben and Rosie, Bella and Polly, and keeping company with my Dad. You never knew him, but he liked dogs so you’ll be all right with him.

Mother will miss you terribly.