No one could possibly understand what it meant to watch a person alter so drastically in front of them, to see them change and deteriorate until eventually there was just a hollow shell that no longer remotely resembled the person

People just found – somehow – a way to adapt; their bodies continued to function, yet their minds would never exist in the same way again. Life went on, but lives stopped.

no amount of time was enough to absorb the shock of such a loss. People just found – somehow – a way to adapt; their bodies continued to function, yet their minds would never exist in the same way again. Life went on, but lives stopped.

Life was precious, though Alex realised she hadn’t always known it.

As with every other time, she wished they could go back and undo the things they’d said years earlier; try and do things differently, better this time.

Watching her mother’s decline had been slow and painful: the worst thing she had ever had to witness.