We’ve just returned from my grandpa’s funeral in the US. Followers will remember my grandma passed in early July. They are together now - that’s what people say.
In my jet lag I can only say that something more poetic is to come, and this ordeal leaves me with many mixed feelings: relieved, sads, lost, hopeful, loved.
I will say, I’m so fortunate to know so many good people at the University of Manchester. They all have responded with resounding empathy, care, and love this year - from the 18 month separation of my husband to the dual deaths of my grandparents; and really, these days, these sort of peoples are a rare find. We don’t say it - because we hard-ass Politics PhDs - but I love those peoples, my colleagues, my PhD family, the 21st century family…
So as I prepare my teaching prep for 8 hours of off and on teaching tomorrow in ‘peak’ jet lag, I know I’ll never forget being at my grandpa’s funeral - tears running down my face - knowing somewhere in Rome, one of my colleagues has discovered that the ruins where Julius Caesar was killed is now a cat sanctuary. …and that is what makes the awful okay, and so does my PhD family.
