The day before Mental Health Day came the news.

I know that life can throw us unexpected 'curve balls', and I'm sure just like you, I’ve also lived through some of those over the years.

But even though I knew this was going to happen, I didn’t expect the news of my mum’s passing to come this way.

On the 9th of October, exactly a year after losing a dear friend to cancer, my mum passed away as well. I knew she has given up, but I kind of hoped that maybe somehow, things will turn around.

But she made her mind up, and for sure she was a strong woman, this was about to become an unexpected curveball of many discoveries about my family and some uncomfortable truths that have given me some new perspectives.

Grief is something that we all experience in our lives, loss of some material things, loss of a friendship, loss of someone really close to you, loss of others not so close to you. 

And just like many people advised me over the last couple of weeks, grief comes in many different 'shapes and sizes, and colors'.

But this picture of her grave reminds me that even in someone’s passing, there are lively colors, just like the flowers on this picture.

Maybe we don’t see them so clearly at the time, but we can see them eventually as time passes.