Mark Keown

As some may know, the last three weeks have been very intense for me. My dad had been in hospital to have his bowel reconnected after a bowel cancer operation and he aspirated developing a severe pneumonia. He was sedated, put on a ventilator, and after a protracted 17 day period, died last week. His funeral was on Saturday. He was 75 years old. This is not the first time I have been in Middlemore for a long period with a family member. Three of my family have died there. Such times are intense and gruelling. You feel as if you are in some warp of reality. Sitting here on the other side, I feel like for three weeks of my life I was in another world. You go into some survival mode, all that matters is the sick and supporting the family. It is surreal. Then life goes on as if nothing happened. You go back to work, to your business whatever it is, and yet, there is a hole in the world; a void where once stood my Dad (or the other loved ones we can all name). I find such times...