- Posted on: 29 March, 2021
- Death
- Nina Bawden
- #1967 #A Woman of My Age #Aunt Lilian #death #Elizabeth #Female #Novel
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Aunt Lilian x
‘I shouldn’t die,’ Aunt Lilian said.
She never spoke again. She became unconscious. There were red patches on her cheeks and she breathed in little snores. She wet the bed. The district nurse who lived next door helped me, rolling her to one side while I pulled out the draw sheet. Her white legs had gone little, like a child’s; the crinkly grey hair on her pubis seemed an absurdity. She weighed nothing. The nurse said, ‘You know you’d think you’d get use to it., but you never do. Let’s leave her the next time, don’t disturb the poor soul.’
When she slipped into death, the nurse held a mirror to her lips and wept. She had been a pupil at Aunt Lilian’s school.
