I am the legal Guardian of my mentally handicapped sister Bonita, who was 58 on Sunday. She has lived in institutions all her life, having been abandonned by our birth mother in infancy at around the same time she gave me up for adoption. Bonita can't talk and can only follow the most basic of instructions. She is a gentle peaceful soul who has lived a life that the rest of us can only guess at. I told a bit of her story in a previous Blog article.

She was due to have surgery yesterday for breast cancer, but the surgeon phoned me from the theatre to say that she couldn't proceed because in the short interval between the biopsy and surgery, the tumour has grown so aggressively that the resulting wound could not be closed. It is inoperable. The most they can do is give radio therapy in the hope of preventing it breaking through the skin, and attempt to keep her pain free and as comfortable as possible.

I am asking everyone that can to pray for a peaceful, compassionate, fear free passing for this poor soul. She won't be able to understand what is happening to her, so hopefully her final passage will be speedy and deliver her to a better place where she can finally be at peace.

Gratefully,

Faith