my mother in law pretending to be her mother in law. The photo was taken ten years ago when we were arranging the funeral of her mother in law. The children are, of course, my children. I've dug this old photo out as today we are arranging the funeral of my mother in law, who died yesterday.
She very nearly made it to her Golden Wedding Anniversary, we already had the restaurant booked to celebrate it. Her last years were plagued with ill health and it was a common virus that led to her death. Most of her adult life was a struggle with many mental health issues and long bouts of depression. Her childhood was also very difficult. But she was a loving, funny, intelligent and cheeky woman right to the end, even when we thought she wasn't taking anything in anymore, she was still prone to suddenly correcting us when we got something wrong. She was a tremendous support to me when the children were little and I was trying to study for my degree and we lived in the countryside and I couldn't drive. I couldn't have wished for a lovelier mother in law - and she created a lovely family too, which is obvious right now as we all pull together and look after each other.
In my mind she will always be as she was 14 years ago, when we first came back to Switzerland and I spent so much time with her. Her pet-name for Flea then was "mumper-stumper", and I think we're going to have to start using that again. 
Somewhere in the universe, there is a sun-lounger with an ashtray next to it and her now-free spirit is getting the sun and rest it deserves.

This morning, the postman brought the parcel with the ramps I had ordered so we could get ma in law's wheelchair into our house. She never got to see our house in its nearly finished state and the ramps will just be put away unopened to be taken out maybe one day....