My mother took a handbag everywhere she went. Her final one was a supermarket freezer bag. I don’t know what was in her handbag—everything you might need to survive the last days, I suspect. She hardly ever let me carry it for her, even when she was old and sick. It was very heavy.
Read MoreThis week we are staying in a cottage on a farm above Byron Bay in northern New South Wales. We stay here every Easter. David goes to Bluesfest, and we visit the beach early in the morning before the crowds arrive. Sometimes we find remnants of the night before: bottles, a fire pit, occasionally sleeping people who do not wake up even when the sun is high in the sky.
Read MoreI didn’t feel there was anything I needed to tell you at the end and yet, I wasn’t ready. We weren’t finished. Why is that? In my teens and even into my twenties, I said you were the worst mother. I had reasons for my anger but none of them belonged with you.
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