State of Alarm - day Eighty Seven

Another bright and sunny day with occasional gusts of cooling wind. As I was finishing breakfast I had a message from Jules to say that his mother, my sister Pauline had just died, seventeen days since she was admitted to hospital after a heart attack. She wasn't expected to live then, and we were all surprised that she rallied and looked as if she would pull through. Over the past week however, she began to deteriorate and was in such pain that she was given morphine and finally slipped away, ninety one years and three months old, and ready to go, as she said herself.

Under present conditions, funeral arrangements will be difficult to make. Jules is unable to leave Dubai and faces a fortnight's quarantine when he gets here. By the time a funeral can be arranged, will it be possible to hold it in Bleadon Hill Parish church, where we said farewell to daughter Kay and husband Geoff? When I get back, I'll be in quarantine for two weeks. Will it be possible to leave Wales and attend the funeral, given that people in Wales are restricted to a travel range of five miles from home? Or will things have changed by then? For Pauline, all is resolved now, but for her family and friends, everything is unresolved. It's impossible at this stage to tell how anything will work out.

Much praying and exchanging of messages for the rest of the morning, then cooking lunch for Anthony and I. Then, I walked down to an area of beach at Cala de Bou which I hadn't seen before, looking directly across to Sant Antoni. The rocky foreshore near the Playa Bella holiday apartment complex has some stretches of fine sandy beach, but there were very few people taking advantage of it this afternoon, perhaps because of the wind.

I started gathering all my possessions, scattered around the house, and packing everything I don't need in my suitcase this evening. Almost everything is clean. One of the pairs of trousers I brought with me is far too large for me now, so These have been washed and will be recycled on one of the clothes repositories you find at every refuse deposit site.  I've stripped one of the beds I used early on, ready to wash the sheets together with Anthony's on Monday morning. If we start early it'll all be dry before I leave at midday.

Having run out of things to do I headed for bed an hour earlier than usual. Now that I've had preliminary notifications for both my flights, I am starting relax a bit. With all the fresh air and exercise I enjoy, getting off to sleep is never a problem here, worried or not.