Things can only get better, right?

Pretty all round crappy start to 2010, it has to be said...

Yeah, of course, money is still my number 1 worry, but that's not really what I'm talking about...

Put it this way: there are 8 flats in my building, one of which is only occupied about 3 months of the year (that's the one directly above us). The top floor flats each have one single lady (one aged 46, one aged 83). On the next floor down, a just-retired-but-very-dynamic couple and an out of work graduate. Next floor down, a youngish couple and their 18-month-old son and the aforementioned not-often-occupied flat. And on the ground floor, an elderly couple (late 70s) and us, a couple with 2 young girls. So, that makes 14 inhabitants (plus the elderly-ish lady who comes 3 months a year). Well. Since 2010 started, two of those inhabitants have died. Spooky, or what?

The first was the 77-year-old man on our (ground floor) landing. He was in great shape for the first half of the year. He and his wife went away (as every year) all summer to their house in the country. When they came back in September, he apparently had "back problems" and looked like he'd aged about 15 years. He got steadily worse, but it really did seem to be back-related - he was in good shape apart from walking and stuff. He was scheduled for surgery on 30/12 but went for the pre-op blood tests in mid-December. They discovered leukaemia. And he went downhill from there, dying on 2 January. Swift and relatively painless for him, so we've been told, but tough on his family. The funeral service was on Wednesday, the only really beautiful day we've had here since we came home.

The other was the 46-year-old lady on the top floor. She'd been a wreck for a few years - colorectal cancer, multiple operations (a few of which were seriously botched), long-standing anorexia and depression, multiple suicide attempts. But she was a lovely person, really kind and the girls loved her. She tried to kill herself for the umpteenth time in early December and was hospitalised, first here, then in Toulouse to be nearer her family (such as it is). She spent Christmas with her brother and his wife in Albi, but drank hydrochloric acid on Christmas day, fell into a coma and died last night.

Holy crap. What a way to die. I hope she's found peace at last, wherever she is.

Surely, surely things can only get better now? Please don't say bad news comes in threes - I'm freaking out badly enough as it is...

God speed, Mr B, and God speed, sweet, sweet S...

Here's to a brighter future.