Maria xxx xxx first posted this to Facebook on February 6 th 2020 Short as it may be, I thought it both touching and revealing; so much it has made it here, on Brilliant Blogshare Well, today didn't go as we hoped but it's in the hardest of times we learn the best lessons and feel the most gratitude. Buffy was scheduled to have her teeth cleaned and removed today but Dr. Mac had a gut feeling she needed to look at some lab work before putting her under anaesthesia.  She was right; Buffy showed signs of advanced kidney failure so anaesthesia was not an option and as a family, we decided that the kindest and most loving thing to do would be to let her go before she lost her will to live and stopped eating and drinking. I wouldn't have dreamed of leaving my son out of this decision or not allowing him to be part of the entire process so, I immediately went and picked him up from school.  On the way to the veterinary surgeons, he told me he wante...

The words the world does not want to hear, but will inevitably do so. When people think of a contemporary royal death in Britain, they think, inescapably, of Princess Diana. The passing of the Queen will be monumental by comparison. It may not be as nakedly emotional, but its reach will be wider, and its implications more dramatic. “She is the only monarch that most of us have ever known” The royal standard will appear on the TV screen. The national anthem will play. It will be a day when you will remember where you were. For Queen Elizabeth II of England, the plan for what happens upon her demise is known as “ London Bridge .” The prime minister will be woken, if she/he is not already awake and civil servants will say “ London Bridge is down” on secure lines. From the Foreign Office’s Global Response Centre, at an undisclosed location in the capital, the news will go out to the 15 governments outside the UK where the Queen is also the head of state, an...

A Legacy from the Great War.  (WW1) ( I first posted this on the 11 th of the 11 th , Remembrance day. But as today is Armed forces day and the 100 th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme I thought it justifiable to give it a further outing )         I was watching a television trailer, regarding a forthcoming documentary, examining life of those who lived and fought from the trenches. I was struck by the number of film clips that were taken at the front line. That so many have survived for the past one hundred years is quite amazing considering the ease of degradation of the materials used. I had not previously considered such an archive of moving images existed, considering movie making was in its infancy at that time.    Seeing these short monochrome ( mostly although a few colour films were produced ) films of men going about their daily lives on the front line, brought the characters of those captured on cellulose to l...

Posted on   November 26, 2015  on https://countingducks.wordpress.com   reflections on a passing life. by   Peter Wells aka Countingducks             I cannot hold your hand this year, I cannot share that memory. I cannot pour a drink for you or walk the beach where we both walked. I cannot laugh as we both laughed or dance a night time’s life away, sure we have eternity I cannot hold your arm this year, and steady you across the road, two old people braving time and laughing at futility. I cannot travel back with you, glass in hand to memories when, young at heart, we hid our  insecurities. I cannot see you in the room, smiling as you always did, at some transgression in our midst, or drive too fast down country lanes or swim where reckless people swim: ignoring safety was our pride. We always got away with it: made it to the other side; but are you are gone and I am here, stripped of context by my age...

Originally POSTED ON  JUNE 3, 2015   BY  AMANDALYLE1986 Read the ORIGINAL post https://insidethelifeofmoi.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/a-letter-to-my-father/ I have included this post on Brilliant Blog share because it ENCOMPASSES everything that this blog has set out to discover, basically the most exceptional blog posts around and this post IS exceptional. 229 Dear Dad, It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since I said goodbye. The absence in my heart still yearns louder than ever. A missing piece, forever lost and irreplaceable. All that remains are memories, ever-fading and ragged around the edges. I grasp onto them with all my might, trying to savour each one, but as time trickles by like sand in an hourglass, so do the memories I have of you. Five years on, I still find it hard to look at old photographs without feeling overwhelmed by sadness. I tread cautiously through a minefield of memories in fear of setting off an explosion o...