Letter

Sometimes when at an impasse, when all communication has broken down, when there is but blind anger and delusion, it helps to write. So I stayed up while everyone else had gone to bed and wrote a letter to my brother, which I intend to leave somewhere for him to discover after I leave in two days.

It's not an angry letter, nor is it a letter full of blame or scolding. I simply put it clear to him that his behaviour towards mum in the last couple of weeks is not right, and that she, of all people, especially all that she has done for us, for him, deserves much better and much more.

At one point in the letter I ask him to take the chance to take a long look at our mother...

...to see how age and her illness has worn her, has changed her... to see the frowns and wrinkles left behind from years of worry and care for us. When someone has seen that, when a child sees that, how can anyone with a heart and soul not feel for her, not perhaps want to give her a warm, heartfelt hug... or perhaps even shed a tear...?

Maybe my brother will tear the letter up when he finds it, or maybe he'll read it and think nothing of it and stay the way he is.

But I am hopeful that there is a bit of human-ness and love in everyone. Sometimes all that is needed are a few words and feelings to uncover them...