Sorry to post again in this happy thread but Christine is thought to be in the last days of life now. I am going to visit her this afternoon but she may not be awake and I will simply sit there holding her hand as I did last time. The saving grace is that, as she is so often asleep, we do not think she is in any pain. I will certainly not wake her and will walk in without knocking to avoid disturbance.
For those who don’t know, she was far and away the most caring of all of the many excellent health visitors my wife Fran had over her last couple of years and I love her dearly without being in love, if that makes sense. She has remained cheerful through 18 months of twice visited cancer, several operations and courses of chemo including being transferred between two hospitals, Limoges and Perigueux and a hopeful at the time stay in a recovery home. She was transferred back home after the dread words ‘we have no more treatment available’ some months back in the care of all her former colleagues.
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That’s a very caring thing to do after everything you’ve been through.
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I don’t look at it that way though, I feel towards her all except romantic love, and had told her so.
As if all that was not enough, when I was in hospital after my heart attack in May 2024, she made it back home after a time in a different recovery home, presumably cured, but on the very day she was delivered to the house her husband, who had become a very good friend of mine due to my frequent visits to get her news, went to the shops, fell in the street, received a fractured skull and died on his way to the same hospital as me. I was so visibly shocked on reading her text, that the nurses around me noticed and rushed to my aid.
I immediately texted back saying that we, Fran and I, owed her so much that if there was anything, anything I could do she only had to say. Her reply was typical ‘you owe me nothing, I loved Fran’.
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I know exactly what you mean David. Lots of love go to you and although I don’t know her, I’m sending all good wishes to Christine. May her last days be peaceful without suffering. God wants her, because she’s an angel - that’s what I always think when the good ones ‘go’.
Lots of good, positive thoughts and wishes to you my dear friend. Love from Rachel 
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Thank you Rachel, very kind, I don’t myself believe in an afterlife but times like this perhaps makes me wish I did, and see her meeting up with Laurent, her rock star husband and also my dear Fran, would be a nice thought to have. 
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In the event, I could not see her, it was her own wish and that included her best friend of many years. I got there early, at 3.45 and parked outside but had promised to go in at 4. Steven her brother came outside without having seen me there, because she had sent him, wanting to be totally alone. We spoke for over 10 minutes and I am not sure that I will ever see her again, but has promised to ring or text if she does rally. Her mornings are full, just like Fran’s were, of all the various carers coming in and that means being got out of bed for them to complete all of their tasks, and it wipes her out by midday and only wanting to be alone afterwards. Maybe tomorrow.
Steven does not work, maybe retired, not sure but he will stay now as long as he is needed but will need to extend his visa if so. He has to stay, she must not be alone and will be taken back to hospital, against her wishes, if no-one is there. The relay of brothers, daughter and grandchildren, all with their own lives in England to maintain seems to be accepted to be at an end. Just Steven now and, if she will let us, all her friends. So sad.
BTW, it was so hot that I left Jules at home, he was very good, laying in the shade of the terrasse with the house open if he wanted to go in, but he was still there, or there again, when I got home, nice welcome home. 
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I never believed in the after life until my lovely son was brutally killed by a thick mobile ‘phone using van driver. My son was 49 and was on his way to work on his motorbike. Since that very day, I have had many many things happen to me, some very strange, some virtually life saving. I could go on, but just to say that I know that Simon my lad was always around me. I am not religious in any way. That has not changed. But as far as life on earth is concerned, this one is definitely not the end.