a few days in worthing

taken on my mobile - bonfires on the beach (looking down from the road)

Brighton beach at night

It has been a sad, sometimes very difficult, sometimes warm and loving - few days. bewildering standing in uncle's flat wondering where to begin, thoughts about what it all amounts to when you are gone; wishing i had got down earlier; wishing i had managed to come down to record him talking about his life, as he didnt think he could write about it when i asked..

attempting to sort out paperwork in his flat with sisiter and brother in law, because i want to find stuff to be able to write up about his life a bit. and also sister's children need photos to make a collage.. and so on, which i will scan and email.. found lots of notebooks, some of historical notes, especially about the anglo saxons. also quite a lot on Nathanial Parker Forth (Scarlet Pimpernel) our anscestor he was researching. Sister also knows a lot about that. and there are some notes/diaries from Africa days. i am going to type up a couple of things about the Idi Amin era he wrote about to have at the funeral.

we will not be having the funeral until sometime in June. it feels better to wait and do it properly, but it is also because the doctor has ordered a post mortem. he was away when uncle was in hospital, but he is not happy with how he died.

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i am back at brother's (and wife, family) now. sis and her husband and i drove back last night and we all sat around after an amazing lasagne (a la brother) and downed a couple of bottles of wine (mostly by me my brother says). my sis says she has never seen me drunk before! and i went and phoned other brother at 12.30 at night which wasnt exactly a good idea. sis back down to worthing to do more of her executor jobs (my wee sis being an executor - doing very well) with bro-in-law, then they fly back to the USA on sat. back to the children who are missing them a lot. they will all four be back for the funeral though. it was a horrible thing to happen, but one cant do death to order unfortunately. but its been brilliant spending a bit of time with my sis. and with bro and his wife mi sis-in-law. so. there it is.