St Patrick's Day

It has been a sunny and balmy St Patrick's Day here in Wellington. Paul has had a good day, again surrounded by family. His sister Mary is now out of hospital and spending time at his bedside, along with her husband Tom. Our cousin Kathryn Lindsay joined us for supper. And of course Miang, Chris and I are with Paul too.

Paul is now very dehydrated, thin and tired. Speaking is an effort. But he remains pain-free, he is lucid, calm and contented, and he still has his sense of humour. Tonight he told us he wanted to be part of our family gathering downstairs, so we brought our wee party to his bedroom upstairs. He then insisted on trying some of our gin & tonic - and he gently sipped 1 ml. After declaring it delicious, he insisted on sipping some of Tom's pilsen beer. He slowly drank a mighty 5 mls. He thought this was fine stuff indeed. He topped it off with a special treat of a few crushed ice cubes.

You can see him in this photo enjoying his beer, holding his hand-carved wooden rakau (a wonderful gift from his former graduate student Craig Rofe), and holding court as usual. He suggested that an appropriate caption for this photograph of our party could be: "This household is well-stocked with morphine."

This evening was special for us all and provided a moment of much-needed levity on a sad and difficult journey. But Paul is making the process easy for us - he is incredibly brave, he is at peace, and he remains fully in control of, and engaged in, the path ahead.