Exactly 2 years ago yesterday...

...my Quentin assisted at Mass at Blackfriars in Oxford.  He was MC on the Far Right.   Fr. Lawrence Lew was the subdeacon.  We'd not yet 'net met' but scarcely more than two months later we were secretly engaged. The occasion below was the annual Requiem Mass for Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.  You can read what my husband had posted about it here.

The Duke died Feb. 23, 1447.  As Q put it:

"Now why, you may ask, should one have a Requiem for someone who has been dead for well over 550 years?

Well, largely because however long or short a time someone has been dead, until we know they’re in Heaven, we must assume that they are still in Purgatory, and need our prayers – and the only people of whom we know they’re in Heaven are the Saints, of whose presence in Heaven God has given us proof."

I hope everyone keeps that in mind and prays for Quentin when they think of him.

These may not be a ideal pictures of Q -  most people have hundreds of photos of their loved ones. By comparison I have relatively few.  So every one is precious.

Not long after this event, he also  wrote an item called, 'Dying in Dignity'. regards his 1st wife's death of cancer.  A rather poignant bit is what he said about the pain and suffering - which he himself was to suffer less than two years later.

Quentin wrote:

"My wife would have scorned to ask for an ‘easy way out’; and she would certainly never have thought of it as ‘dignified’ to seek an early death, despite the weeks of mental anguish, not to mention the physical pain involved. Indeed, when someone asked if she was afraid of dying she said ‘Of course; but it’s like Easter,isn't it – you can’t have Easter Day without Good Friday, and I can’t have the Resurrection without the Passion.’Alright, in the event (and when she was barely conscious) she was given pain relief at the end; but ultimately she died in the knowledge – and the confidence – that (to quote the hymn)

‘Long years ago, when earth lay dark and still;
Rose a loud cry, upon a lonely hill;
When, in the frailty of our human clay
Christ, our redeemer, passed the self-same way.’

She accepted that to die was only to go where Jesus had gone before her; and that there was nothing about it to be afraid of, except the fear itself : and the legacy she left behind of patient trust in God touched many people. Would they have been as impressed if she’d said ‘Oh well, if I have to die, I might as well do it now – give me the injection’? I very much doubt it."

Quentin was very brave, accepted his cancer, and not once did he voice 'why me?'    Quentin was conscious to the last and was blessed to have last rites within 15 minutes before he died, as well as having myself in attendance and his parents had just made it to our home immediately after the priest had left.  I believe it safe to say he had the grace of a happy death, though he must have suffered much.  Please keep him in your prayers.