The Final Talk

Well, what is most likely to be my final talk on my great hero Alfred Wegener (I have given about twenty over the last few years) had an audience of around 250 people and included the Vice Chancellor of the University of Hull (who is a former director of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge). They were a kind and appreciative audience and I enjoyed talking to them very much. I sold all the Wegener books that I brought.

I gave my talk and stayed in the Quality Hotel which once accommodated Queen Victoria - although Hull has a tradition of being anti-monarchist. Good. I am in favour of republicans.

However, the next morning after breakfast I received a message from my mother-in-law's nursing home that she was very ill, and knowing what that means, was very grateful that I was able to cross the country in time to be there - not for my mother-in-law, who faded gently away, but for my husband. Although it is sad it is also a blessing. 83 is a good age and her quality of life has been poor in the last few weeks and with no chance of improvement.

Today we registered her death and found that it was what we supposed: vascular dementia - a series of minor strokes slowly closing down her brain. She had no idea what was happening to her and most of the time she was perfectly content. It was, I believe, a good death.