Gigi was a remarkable woman. Her grandfather co-founded the British Socialist Party, her father was a conscientious objector with a grandfather clock in the sidecar of his Army-issue motorbike. She trained as a nurse in Australia after the War, and when she returned to the UK and her qualifications were dismissed, she trained as a nurse again. She was brilliant at it.

She was also a family woman, raising two children as a single mother in the days when it was even more taboo than it is now, because while people pay lip service to tolerance and acceptance the nuclear family is still seen as the default and deviation from that default is not socially acceptable. She eventually sold her house in the West Country to one of the guitarists from Gong and moved in with her daughter's family, where she helped to raise her grandchildren, managed to kick a lifelong smoking habit, and instill a sense in those same grandchildren that you could be who you wanted, no matter how many people scoffed at you or denied you or belittled you for wanting what you wanted.

She died on Sunday, in a residential home for people with advanced dementia. This isn't another loss to CoVid-19, thankfully. She didn't surrounded by worried eyes above faceless white masks and behind a clear plastic face shield. She would have hated that, I'm sure, even before the dementia took her memories of nursing and her drive and her endless compassion away from her.

It's okay if you're wondering who she is. You've got no reason to know of her. She wasn't renowned or famous or anything like that. She was just kind.

And I wanted to tell you a little bit about who my grandmother was.

Thank you for indulging me.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

In blowing out a candle, two others are lit. The Vigil goes on forever.

She sounds amazing. I'm sorry you've lost her, and thanks for sharing a bit about her.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I can't see why this would be indulging. Most of the names that show up in the RIP may be renowned or famous, indeed...but in all honesty, seldom are they important in ways that matter, and never as important as people like your grandmother. My condolences on your loss.

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"

Thank you so much for sharing a part of her story with us.

I am sorry for your loss.

My condolences, Gryphon.

>My condolences, Gryphon.

Huh?

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I'm an idiot who misread the name of the thread OP

My condolences should be, and are, extended to The Traitor.

Just wanted to thank you all for your kind words and give you a bit of an update.

Things have been... tricky. The medical centre managed to balls up sending the death certificate to the registrar, and when my mum found out and questioned it the receptionist was so rude to her that it left her in tears. The whole thing was a complete mess and because of that we might have to have a coroner's report, depending on where exactly which lines of communication got muddled. So dealing with that was a barrel of laughs.

To add to that, we can't properly make any funeral arrangements until the death certificate has been issued, and we don't know how long any of it's going to take, and we might only have a twenty-minute slot at the local crematorium, and I'll have to pretend to be a boy the entire time whenever it does happen, and while we're planning to scatter Gigi's ashes in Charmouth on the Jurassic Coast when she grew up it'll have to wait until 2021 for a variety of reasons and if I come out or get outed before then I am extremely unsure if I'll even be permitted to attend, and it's all a bit much, that's a lie actually, it's a lot much.

Sorry for venting. Just needed to... type it all out, I suppose.

Thank you all once again for your messages and your kindness. I really appreciate it, and they've been so helpful for my mental health during this extremely difficult time.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.