Bye Nana

"Bye Nana. Thanks for everything, I'll miss you"

Those were the last words I said to my nana as she lay peacefully on her hospital bed.

My brothers, mother and I were at home watching TV when we got a call on the cellphone, which usually means an emergency because hardly anyone rings us on the cellphone! It turned out to be our uncle, letting us know that our nana has just passed away. We tried getting through to our dad at work but it was busy, most likely because of Christmas time, but when we got through we were told he had already left.

We managed to get to St Josephs Mercy Hospital where our nana had been staying for the past few days. In her room were all our relatives, and there on the bed was our very pale nana. It was really freaky seeing her lying there. You kinda expect to see her breathing, but when you take a closer look she just lies there very still, with a wreath placed beside her on the bed and a solitary candle burning by her bedside. Obviously my dad, my uncle and my aunty, all of our nana's children, were very upset. We each took turns to say our goodbyes to Nana.

There were a few comical moments. My dad took a little snip of our nana's hair, 'for DNA purposes if needed in the future', and got me to take photos our nana's face from all angles as it was our last opportunity to take any photos of her, and to also use it as a possible reference if we ever decide to digitally recreate her. My dad was about to raise the bed with the remote control to sit our dead nana up on the bed to take a photo of her! My mum told him not to though.

A couple days ago the doctors predicted our nana wouldn't last for more than a couple of days, but it was looking hopeful she would last at least to Christmas. Despite being so close she didn't make it.

The funeral will be held this Thursday. One song that will be played at the funeral will be 'O Come All Ye Faithful', the song that played when our nana left us.

Rest in Peace Catherine Anderson, 1923-2005