Losing parents is always hard, my parents had to go through losing their own parents and I always remember my mum lost her parents as she was thousands of miles away from them in the UK as they were in South America and I don't remember her doing anything different - she was distraught but I never saw it and I don't remember being much help but she kept it in and now looking back - I don't know how she did it - she went to work, made our tea etc - when I lost my mum, I was in China and it was hard and I took a month off work and I realise how lucky I was to do that - but it was hard being so far away because I never got to say goodbye to her because there were still no flights in or out of China but now - I know my mum is with me and I can feel her presence in my life - I live with the fact she isn't here as she was but for me - she is still here and I talk to her and ask for advice and in the physical sense, there she is - I am mum's son - you see me and you see her - I am her flesh and blood so she lives on in more ways than one.

My dad is now 89 and he is still in pretty good health, excellent health for his age to be honest but I remember when my parents turned 70 that I realised that there was an end game in sight and I had to prepare mentally for the day that they wouldn't be here anymore - that day is always going to come around and we have to prepare and we have to do the hard yards of grieving but they had to do it for their own parents - the only way I could get out of grieving for my parents is for me to go first which would have destroyed them - my mum would not wanted for me to go first because I would have escaped the horrible business of her passing - it is something most of us have to through - an awful but probably necessary rite of passage and though we would wish that our parents would all die in their bed peacefully, the universe doesn't always gives us what we want. We have to remember our overall relationship with them and that we knew they loved us and we loved them and that they knew that on the day they left and that of course, they're always looking over us. I truly believe that is the case but it does get better - two years and counting - I know my mum is around and she is looking after me, why wouldn't she? And it will be the same with you. 

Losing parents is always hard, my parents had to go through losing their own parents and I always remember my mum lost her parents as she was thousands of miles away from them in the UK as they were in South America and I don't remember her doing anything different - she was distraught but I never saw it and I don't remember being much help but she kept it in and now looking back - I don't know how she did it - she went to work, made our tea etc - when I lost my mum, I was in China and it was hard and I took a month off work and I realise how lucky I was to do that - but it was hard being so far away because I never got to say goodbye to her because there were still no flights in or out of China but now - I know my mum is with me and I can feel her presence in my life - I live with the fact she isn't here as she was but for me - she is still here and I talk to her and ask for advice and in the physical sense, there she is - I am mum's son - you see me and you see her - I am her flesh and blood so she lives on in more ways than one.

My dad is now 89 and he is still in pretty good health, excellent health for his age to be honest but I remember when my parents turned 70 that I realised that there was an end game in sight and I had to prepare mentally for the day that they wouldn't be here anymore - that day is always going to come around and we have to prepare and we have to do the hard yards of grieving but they had to do it for their own parents - the only way I could get out of grieving for my parents is for me to go first which would have destroyed them - my mum would not wanted for me to go first because I would have escaped the horrible business of her passing - it is something most of us have to through - an awful but probably necessary rite of passage and though we would wish that our parents would all die in their bed peacefully, the universe doesn't always gives us what we want. We have to remember our overall relationship with them and that we knew they loved us and we loved them and that they knew that on the day they left and that of course, they're always looking over us. I truly believe that is the case but it does get better - two years and counting - I know my mum is around and she is looking after me, why wouldn't she? And it will be the same with you.