Getting things sorted... slowly!

As was only to be expected, I didn't sleep well last night and woke up feeling miserable and drained. Sophie took today off work as a well-being day, which was great. I just felt lucky I had both her and Keith with me.

My main mission today was letting friends and family know, something that Facebook is excellent for. I also contacted my Dad's two private pension companies to let them know online, but I have a feeling they will need a copy of the death certificate when we can get it. The funeral company also called me, and I made an appointment to see them tomorrow with Keith. 

Sophie and I made a list of things we need to do, and a tentative list of who we thought would be coming to the funeral. We all went over to Tesco at Kettering to buy Mum a couple of pairs of comfy leggings and a pot of face cream that she'd asked for. On the way, Dad's GP called and said he would call me back when I wasn't driving. 

We sat in the car park at Tesco and waited for him to call back, which he did, confirming that he had given Parkinson's disease as the main cause of death, with dementia as the second. Because of the infamous Harold Shipman murder case in the early 2000s, my Dad's death certificate had to be sent to the Medical Examiner, who might contact me over the next day or two to make sure I was happy with the verdict.

We entered the fray in Tesco to buy what we needed and then headed to the care home to see Mum. She was looking a bit frail and lost, but the carers had been keeping a good eye on her and sitting with her. She said she would miss my Dad, and I can only imagine how she felt. For the last five years, they had been inseparable. I told her about the Facebook post, but I'm not sure how much of it she took in, to be honest. I tried to talk to her about the funeral, but she didn't say whether my Dad had left any instructions. This is where I wish we'd talked about this years ago!

On the way home, we popped into the pub for a drink as I felt we all deserved one! The pub was very quiet, and we sat with our drinks at a table because Sophie and I fancied a quick bite to eat. We ordered pigs in blankets, halloumi fries and Turkish bread with a hummus dip, which was just what we needed. It was lovely to sit and relax after the events of the day and chat about what had happened and the coming weeks. I'm hoping that tomorrow we can fix a date for the funeral and start to let people know.

Back home, I called Sara to say I was taking tomorrow off, and she let me know I had five bereavement days. I'm hoping I won't need them all, as I can do a lot on Wednesday when I'm off and Thursday afternoon.

Keith prepared a spicy and delicious chilli con Carne for dinner, and after we'd eaten, we caught up with another episode of Shetland. It was great to take my mind off things!