Tough Times

I was chatting with my niece 400km away in the city, she'd just brought home her new puppy and was sitting tickling his belly on the couch as we chatted. Someone had stolen her last dog and she had waited many weeks to finally pick up this new bundle of joy, as always I could sense the excitement in her soft voice.

Chat over I went on with my day smiling inside at knowing her happiness.

Just an hour later I answered the phone to hear a womans plaintive crying on the other end, I could hardly understand what she was saying and I wasn’t even sure who it was but the name came through, "Jasmin, Jasmin is dead. . ."

As I hung up the phone my head was spinning, I felt like I'd just awoke from a bad dream and was completely unsure I'd heard right. It couldn’t be, cant be? It must be a wrong number, a prank call, another Jasmin? It simply cannot be!

I rang her father, (my older brother) it rang out so I rang and rang again and again until I got through. The moment I heard his voice I knew it was true, at just 24 she was gone, leaving a 4yr old daughter without a mother and best friend.

I didn't ask what happened, his pain was bad enough already and I just couldn’t ask him to tell me about it.

I started making the calls to let the family know, each and every one had the same reaction as me…

Later that night her mother rang to tell me the story, how she'd had a seizure in the bath and slipped below the water, how her 4yr old had found her and gone next door for help, how that help arrived too late...

If the devil was making a list there would be a few names I could give him, but this smart, kind and much loved young woman would never be among them.

Wise beyond her years, comforting and understanding like few people I know.

Jasmin was just the same age as my youngest daughter and some genetic trick made them as close to twins to look at as you could imagine.

D3 will be missing her cousin Jazzy as much as any other person on earth.

This coming week will be hard on our family, we will all come together for yet another funeral but this one will be more terrible than previous ones.

When an old person dies you talk of how they had a good innings, how they did so much and went so far; how they were so sick that the end came as a blessed relief… but what do you say about someone so young, so full of spirit and life….

.