Term 3
Immediately after travelling back to uni I needed to seriously get on with writing my family study essay as there was only 2 days until it was due in! I really struggled to work on it over the Easter break because I didn't have my own personal space where I could shut the world away and just get on with it. Thankfully, once I was back at uni I was able to shut myself away and get it typed up.
Lectures started the next day but they were only scheduled for 3 days before the Easter bank holiday weekend which, for some reason, started on Thursday for us.
I met my Dad in London for a couple of days to go sightseeing, and pushing him around in his wheelchair meant that we would have struggled with the tube, so we walked everywhere and saw some pretty cool things that we would have otherwise missed.
For those of you who don't follow this blog, my Dad was suffering from terminal cancer, so we ticked off his bucket list The Museum of London, M&M World, the Lego Store, China Town and The British Museum. It turned out to be his last weekend away as he began to deteriorate more rapidly after that.
Back at uni I rounded off the long weekend with brunch, shopping and a night out with the girls.
Just over a week passed with classes as normal before Dad was admitted to hospital as his potassium level was too high. He was treated and monitored but I remained at university at the request of my Dad, and I waited until the weekend to travel home that weekend to see him. He was discharged on the Saturday and as it was another long weekend I still had a couple of days to spend with him at home watching movies and eating snacks.
It was back to uni for classes for 4 days before coming home again for the weekend. Dad took to his bed this weekend and we watched a lot of cooking TV whilst keeping him company. Dad asked me to go back to uni again so I went back for another 4 days, speaking to him every day to check on him, and coming home a day early on the Thursday evening. On the Friday I went to visit Dad and he wasn't doing so well. I stayed with him all day and into the night until 2am when my Mum sent me to have a sleep and she sat with him for a while and he passed away peacefully around 4.30am on the Saturday morning.
Obviously, I didn't travel back to uni after the weekend. Mum and I were executors of Dad's Will so we had a lot to do and my mind was a complete haze. University kindly allowed me to have 3 weeks off and an extension on my essay. They also sent me recordings of the lectures so I could watch them when I was ready.
The following weekend (another bank holiday!) we'd previously booked a trip to London for Dad to try again to take him to Warner Brothers Studio Tour, so my siblings and I took our step-brother instead as we knew Dad wanted us to go. A rainbow even peeked out between the clouds for us like Dad was looking down on us.
I spent the rest of the time at home dealing with Dad's finances, planning his funeral, writing an essay, and trying to vaguely keep up with lectures, all while trying to keep all my emotions together.
When I arrived back at uni my flatmates were waiting to give me loads of hugs and support me. I stayed off class the following day as I didn't feel up to going into the anatomy lab but I worked on lectures in my room, and returned to classes the next day.
My flatmates and friends kept me busy and motivated during revision season, and the exam seemed like it went okay, all things considered (spoiler alert: it did). After the exam I had a couple of days to pack up and put my things into storage before coming home, and I got medic married!
A couple of days after I arrived home it was time for Dad's funeral, which honestly was as nice as it could be.
It doesn't feel right to talk about the rest of my summer here, so I'll leave it for today and try to post some summer updates soon, as well as a photo of Dad's burial spot and his willow tree. I might even make a memorial post for Dad with lots of photos.
Thanks for reading,
Katherine x
