So far away

Last winter we had planned a visit to see Auntie Dulcie and our cousins in Queensland, then Covid happened and the borders closed. My cousin died suddenly in June. Watching my aunt at the streamed funeral service was heartbreaking. Her daughter dead. Her Victorian family so far away, unable to hold her, to comfort her.

A few months later, my uncle in Melbourne rang to tell us that our aunt had terminal cancer. I rang her and we talked for half an hour or so. I promised that we would come to Queensland as soon as the borders opened.

She died eight days later.