Mum

My brother and I wrote these few words last week as a way to let friends and family know of my Mum's passing. We've all been progressively more absent from the rest of our lives these last few weeks, and the kind words friends and family have sent us in response have been overwhelmingly lovely.

Of the very few people who read this blog I doubt any knew my Mum, and this blog's theme to date has been more towards my tech & creative side than my personal life, but this is important enough to me that I want to include this message here too.

Friends and family,

It's with a heavy heart that we share the news of our Mum, Helen Hastings-Spital's, passing on Thursday October 12th after half a year with cancer. She died peacefully, surrounded by family, at a lovely hospice in Cheltenham. We are immensely proud of her. She embraced the challenges of these few months whole-heartedly, channelling any uncertainty or anxiety into acceptance, love and care, for herself and everyone around her, playfully cracking jokes with her doctors at any opportunity.

Mum's loving, nurturing and creative spirit extended beyond her family and friends to all living things. Whether it was curating colourful blooms or cultivating a bountiful veg garden harvest, Mum's garden overflowed with plants of all kinds. Its beauty at any time of year reflecting the beauty she brought into our lives, its ever-changing colours—particularly rich the sunny weekend just gone—demonstrating the deep interconnectedness of all life that Mum felt and shared with us.

She was an indescribably wonderful Mum. She gave us our creativity, taught us her empathetic kindness, and has been a steady guide through life's challenges; even now its the open and loving conversations she started with us, guiding us through our loss of her.

We'd like to thank the many, many people who supported her this year particularly: friends and family at home, the countless doctors and nurses of the NHS at Cheltenham General Hospital, and the Sue Ryder hospice at Leckhampton Court. We were amazed particularly by the serenity and quality of palliative care the Sue Ryder charity offered Mum—we're both seeking ways to support them now, and we'd invite you to do the same if you're looking for a cause to share time, energy, or donations with.

We miss you Mum. Thanks for everything.