The Law Lords ruled in the Purdy case yesterday and the DPP has been told to issue guidance and clear principles on when prosecutions for assisting suicide will occur. I have to admit that I haven't really been following the story too closely, but, like so many other stories, this has prompted me to think of life four years ago as Dad began his final descent.
The events of that time have taken on rather a strange disconnected feeling as time has past. So many memories of the days during that period feel like it was not me taking part. I did what I felt had to be done at the time, but it is all sort of a blur now.
One of today's suuporting articles is a piece by Anastasia Parkes who has MS. Much of her article discusses how she will feel as her decline speeds up and she has to experience the reaction of her husband and children. I hadn't really thought much about this point before in respect of my Dad. Yet on one or two occasions, Dad did say one or two things that suggest that this was something he was concerned about.
I remember close to the end when I had just finished sorting out a new car for Mum and the various other financial arrangements had been finished. It was almost like Dad relaxed at that point and gave up his fight. That last conversation covered a message that Dad wanted me to pass on to Emma and his thanks for what I had done over the last few months. Anything that reminds me of that day has a major impact on the way I feel, even now, over three years later. I suspect that this will be the case for the rest of my life.
Two days later Dad moved to the hospital and died a day later. Writing this I am glancing at the cartoon on the study wall of Dad in his walking gear that he received when he retired. How much I would like to be able to go walking in the Lake District with him now.
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