Why do we say of people who have died that they are no longer with us? Magteld ceased to exist physically 12 years ago today, but she is still intensely with us – not just in our thoughts, but in the photographs hanging in the house that she chose for us and helped fashion into a home. When I had to have the walls at the back repainted, it reminded me of pushing her round the DIY warehouse in her wheelchair to pick out the mint green colour. I see her in the faces and bodies of our children, who have both inherited her bobbing gait, and in every patch of ground we covered in her last weeks. She is present in every breath, every shadow on the walls, every scrap of handwriting in her notebooks, every mug and glass she touched, every Christmas tree decoration she handled, every online message she posted. She is here until the last wispy thread of her memory fades, with us.
