spare a thought

I started out the day feeling very happy indeed, which if you knew me in person would strike you as unusual indeed, as I am something of a mopey git. We're out at my parents' house in California, and I was enjoying talking to my father (since we could very easily have lost him to a stroke over the summer) and watching the girls play with their grandparents. (Oh, and it's my birthday, did I mention that?)

Unfortunately, we got some awful news this morning. Our friend C had a heart attack at her office on Wednesday (this we knew) but despite best efforts of her doctors, it appears that she's not going to come out of the coma she's been in since then, having suffered irreversible brain damage that requires her to be on life support. So it's left to her husband S (whom she met during their first year of university) to decide when to tell their 4 1/2 year old (a good friend of L's) and 3 year old (as of last weekend) girls that their mother's never going to come home.

We always make an effort to chip in cash and toys to help brighten Christmas for people in material want, which is not these friends. But spare a thought for two little girls who don't even know yet that their mother is gone. R and I are distraught.

POSTSCRIPT: Our friend C died, peacefully, in the early hours of December 24th. We will miss her, and our thoughts are with her husband and children.