Number 44: Both of my parents were at Yair  and Deb’s wedding on 12 February 2012. My parents were both ill already then. My Mom had cancer of the bile duct and my Dad had kidney failure and was on dialysis three times a week for the last seven years of his life. My Mom was stoic and always more worried about my Dad than herself.

Pesach 2013 was extraordinary. Margo, our sister from Toronto, came out with her youngest, eight year old son, Jesse. My parents made the most fantastic effort to give Jesse a great holiday. Margo normally came on her own but this time they needed to entertain an eight year old. So my folks went out with a walker and a wheelchair to Hout Bay, to scratch patch and to our family home in Onrus.

Then they both got pretty ill. Margo was able to take Jesse back to Toronto and return a week later to Cape Town.  For almost a week we had both parents in ICU in different hospitals. This meant that their four adult children  were running between both hospitals. My Mom made the very brave decision to move to the hospital where my Dad was, even though her oncologist did not work there. That way she would   be closer to her beloved Hackey and make life easier for her children. When she was strong enough she was wheeled into his room and just quietly held his hand. By this stage he was on dialysis daily.

After 3 1/2 weeks in CCU, Dad passed away on Wednesday 8 May. We then took Mom home where we nursed her until she died a week later on Wed 15 May 2013.

Theirs was a wonderful love story and when a year later we had to erect the tombstone, we decided on one piece rather than the traditional two.