Before I die...When I've gone... Do me a favour?
"Before I die... I just wanted to say - when I've gone ... Do me a favour?" This is what my dad asked me whilst he was in the last few days of his life. He was on Morphine. He'd just undergone an operation to remove a cancerous growth on the exit wall of his stomach - which, in retrospect, was hardly necessary. But he was philosophical and said that it had given him a few extra days of life and that's how he was able to ask me the question... There was something that had been niggling him... He was very pragmatic. "Will you, when you put my ashes in the ground in the hole next to your mum's, will you open the plastic bag that hers are in - you know, inside the casket - and will you make sure that you mix the two lots together... touching?" Without giving it any thought - because it was his last wish - and you don't want to spoil the moment - I said, "Of course I will". At the time I wasn't surprised or phased by the question. I ...