It's really bad that this occurs on the day before I head off to Sicily. I was going to write a little entry about how much I looked forward to tucking into real Italian food, the best pizzas with the thin crispy crusts, pasta cooked in the best tomato sauce, and the finest ice cream in the world. But then I hear some truly saddening news.

My aunt passed away today. The melanoma which I thought was being cured successfully with chemo (in the last phone call I had with her, she was so optimistic) finally claimed her life. It is really terrible, I didn't know her that well have haven't seen her much, I wish I'd seen her more. Now it's too late...cancer is a horrible thing and it has claimed many of my relatives, my aunts, uncles and grandmothers. It frightens me and has made me a little scared to go out in the sun (and I'm going to Sicily of all places) even if my skin tone is more sun-resistant than hers.

I wish I got to know her better in life, and I did say some things about her in life which I regret a little now (mainly jokes about her obsession with Cliff Richard and her phone calls where she constantly went off at tangents about friends of her friend's boyfriends mothers...) but nothing too serious. It's bad timing that it happens before I leave for what should be a relaxing holiday, but life and death like that-full of bad timing, sadly. I suppose the good thing is that now the pain and sickness really is over, she's free from it, in a better place.