A friend of mine has been exerting her will. On Tuesday I got an early morning text message followed by a 'phone call from my closest friend. He suggested I go round to his place, sink a few and watch a couple of DVDs. Upon arrival I found him in an uncustomary

annoyed state, his mother (a great friend of mine) was resisting treatment in Yorkshire and wanted to come back to Southport. My friend, currently car-less, had arranged what he could (220 'phone calls to get her a place in a good nursing home) and finally an arrangement with his sister that we would borrow her car and drive to Yorkshire, she would come along. The car was very small the occupants weren't. We hastened to Yorkshire, arrived at the hospital made multifarious arrangements, medications, ambulance transportation, early admission to the nursing home. Then followed the ambulance home.

On this 'road trip' we encountered no 'wacky' characters, didn't get into any tricky situations with gunrunners, smuggled diamonds, a hidden map or a secret formula. We didn't recover an errant video tape, and we certainly weren't in a blue Cadillac de Ville - I felt somehow cheated. We arrived at the nursing home saw that (despite her will) she was very tired (but happy). We went home and had a beer (or six). In the morning I sorted out a few tapes, radio-cassette player, book etc to take down to the home. Shortly after 9 my friend arrived to tell me she had passed away watching the sunrise over the garden through the patio doors at the home. We then begin to discover how extraordinary this women really was. She has a 3 page handwritten list of the funeral arrangements, music, vicar, flowers, donations to charity, lists of people to be informed, letters prepared etc etc. Even after death she still exerts a control over people and events, they move but I swear I can see her twitching strings and smiling. As for the subject line "Are you coming 'round for breakfast, Monday." that was how she tended to open telephone conversations with me, usually following it with "You wouldn't mind picking up a few things" (I never did mind). So I would pick up the "few things" add in a book or two, perhaps lend her a DVD or cd from my collection and go 'round. She would make me a large cooked breakfast and we would talk about anything and everything, we would tell stories, perhaps do a crossword,

I would feed the garden birds, and do any odd jobs she wanted doing. Well she made her arrangements and, I hope, got what she wanted in the end. I am just wondering what I shall do with all these superfluous Mondays.

Regards,

Tin