No song

There's no song in my head this morning. The general mood is bad, sad, disinterested in work, whatever. Yesterday got the sad news that Mairead had lost the war. I say war because she had fought and won awful battles with cancer for the last 5 years, but it won out in the end. What do you say to a family who have lost their only sister at the age of 25? I have a sister that age who also went through that battle but came out on top and has had the all clear for 10 years now. She now has the same chance as anyone else to get cancer....theoretically. I can't imagine how she is feeling.

I don't know whether I should give the background to all this or not, but it's a heartbreaking story. A wonderful family of 6 talented sons, the nicest people you could meet. They had one sister, a wonderful sportswoman also. We are friends through the years, from school (she was talented enough to be on the senior camogie team when she was in second year and I was in leaving cert) and her youngest brother has been going out with my sister for a good while now. Our families are linked. When Mairead was 19 she was diagnosed as having a tumour in her knee. It was a shock, as it always is, but she went through various treatment and it was cured. A couple of years later though, it came back in her lung and she has had various seemingly successful treatments in the past few years and had been given provisional 'all clears'. Tony's mother had said at the very start that secondary in the lung is very very difficult to cure. She's a smart lady and has seen a lot in her time as a nurse. Mairead finished her course in college and worked as a teacher. She had a wonderful boyfriend who helped her through. The first baby in the family was born before Christmas and Mairead was her godmother. They got on with life as best they could.

Anyway, for the last few months things haven't been good and for the last week or two, the family knew that it was only a matter of time. She was in good form at the weekend and some friends came home from Australia to see her. I'm glad for them. During the week things got worse and on Tuesday night my sister said that she was really labouring and it was difficult to be there. Thankfully she slipped away yesterday afternoon and is at peace now. I don't know why I'm writing all this, maybe I need to get it off my chest and carry on, because that's what we have to do. We all have to just carry on. Appreciate what we have. Live, laugh, love every day. Enjoy time with our friends and family. Don't worry about the little things .... or the big things. It's just a pity it needs little lessons like this to prompt us along the way.

PS I have been getting wonderful support for the Fundraising at Crafteire. Big shout out of Thank you sooo much to Claire and Di who have sent on fabby stash. Di sent a massive box...such fun to go through and I was so thankful this morning, when I needed a little lift.

I'll leave ye with my memories of Melly - as a cheeky talented camogie player and a beautiful young woman. RIP