Saying Goodbye

When I decided to start blogging I resolved to do two things.
           One -- never write a post longer than 350 words 
           Two -- post at least twice a week
and here I am, still in the front end of January and its been a full ten days since I wrote anything.  But it is not what it seems. On January 8th my father in law died. This brief hiatus in blogging was an instinctive need not to carry on as normal (although, of course, we did in all sorts of ways: we worked, we ate, we slept and watched television. We went out with friends and listened to music; books were read and The Guardian digested; clothes were washed and the carpet hoovered; the underlying beat of life carried on).  
His going was gentle. He lived to a good age and it was a good death. We knew it was going to happen but it still came as a shock. There's no preparation for the final goodbye.