Lessons from my mother

Two years ago my mother gave me one of the greatest gifts I could receive, either as a daughter or as a Medical Oncologist. Despite her long term assertion that she would choose to die in a Hospice rather than be dependent on support from her children at home, at literally the last moment she asked me to care for her as she died. This was slightly complicated by the fact that I live in Adelaide and she lived in England! As a Medical Oncologist I have obviously seen many people die over the past decades but there is nothing quite like going through the experience with a first degree relative. This presentation is based on the record I wrote just after her funeral, and describes the five days of her dying, and some of the events, both wonderful and woeful, that occurred during that time. My mother had a remarkable collection of sayings that she would produce at appropriate moments to educate, entertain, enlighten and infuriate her children, and I have chosen to share a few of these as illustrations of her character. There was one last lesson that she taught me in those few days, which explained a life-time of behaviour, and allowed me to know how to do the right thing.