That is so sad to hear, David. I second Ancient Mariner’s deepest sympathy.
Thank you AM and Susannah, once again I will say so true. Her family is large but have never been close.
Messaging the daughter in law today she says his Dad, Fran’s ex, is going in to see him tomorrow after years of estrangement. They live with just a few miles between them.
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My sympathy as well David, so sad she can’t understand it, but as said perhaps a blessing xxx
Tell her a few times, perhaps with photos, and on some level something might sink in. When my mum was in a coma I comforted myself with the idea that inside her head was a rich tapestry of thoughts. There was definite brain activity. Fran is very possibly thinking happily her own thoughts, but disconnected with the nerves and muscles that make faces have expression.
Thank you both, and I will take your advice Jane.
Tomorrow or the next day I will try as tactfully as I can to ask Jackie, the daughter in law, where this ‘he has only been given till Christmas’ came from. There has been no mention of a doctor visiting, but there might have been, or is it just the impression that Sharne, Fran’s grandchild, came away with after being so shocked at her Dad’s apperance? After all, I thought he was confined, like his wife, to bed, but later I heard from Jackie that he does get up for the toilet and to come and chat with her. But she has painted a very poor picture of him in our recent messages.
Sorry to hear this, David.
Just spoken to family in Texas preparing to shelter from tornadoes touching down all around them and monster hail threatened which means putting mattresses on t he vehicle roofs yet again. There are no public shelters, you can’t dig one in the garden because the soft clay moves so under the stairs or in the bath and a big heavy safe required for storing valuables.
That is why I have an artificial one. They are also warning of walnut sized lumps on branches of conifers that contain the eggs of praying mantis insects.
It’s actually fascinating to see the tiny young, emerging and descending from the eggcase (or whatever it’s called).
Several years ago, we found an “eggcase” fixed on an iron bar outside a lower window… the case is still there, but most of the youngsters escaped safely the following Spring …
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They are so cute…and totally harmless. but to look after them best to cut piece off and move to a more hospitable location. Poor little things don’t want to end up in your Christmas lunch.
Taste a bit like chicken, I imagine?
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Doesn’t everything? 
I’ve never actually seen a baby praying mantis and not sure I’ve seen a live adult one either. Where do you have to live to get them?
Quite a few chez moi in SE 24
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I had one on the window next to me on the little train that goes north from Palma in Majorca to the north of the island. Nearly had a heart attack as it looked like something out of “They Came from Mars”. Therefore down here by the med it seems there are lots too, anywhere its warm and mild. Apparently they eat the good bugs which is why they need to be kept down.
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I don’t think they need keeping down, I think their lives are hard enough. I also get stick insects (phasme). I used to get rhinoceros beetles and stag beetles and other big beetles but far far fewer now if any.
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Saw my first wild mantis on Crete in '87 (and wild tortoises too) but haven’t seen any in recent years, possibly because I’ve not looked.
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Wild tortoises and great big green lizards with a crest down their back, very iguana looking, were often seen in Provence when I was a child, I bet there are practically none now.
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We saw one on the door of our vet. So they must be pretty widespead!
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This is definitely not cheerful, but I’m a bit ashamed to say that it made me laugh for a few seconds 
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Naughty.
The “violent release of energy” is what happens when he was just fiddling with his mystery gift and wondering “I wonder what this bit does…”.
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