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It’s been a long, hard nine months, but I’m beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. There are periods in your life when all you can do is tread water and hope you don’t drown. The last nine months have been like that for me. A new job, a new city, trying to sell my house, buying a new apartment (and hence two mortgages - not fun!) then the low point of a very bad time, my mother’s death.

Not unexpected and now her suffering is over, but it’s still amazing to me that such a gigantic personality is no longer on the planet. We didn’t always have a smooth relationship as mothers and daughters often don’t, but she gave me a legacy of intellectual curiosity through her love of conversation, books and politics. I could often feel estranged from her but she’d always reel me in with some discussion of books or her latest fury about the Howard government.

I keep having ideas that I want to discuss with her but she’s not there. Ah me, oh my. Adulthood is really here.