Lane Beachley

And I wrote, there's so little I know about my mother, but now it's too late.

So I just have to connect with what I do know and connect with what I do want and find what

some level of safety and, I don't know, joy in that because it's too late to ask these questions.

Yes, yeah.

So when I arrived at the hospice, she was unconscious but had the ability to be conscious.

Now, she was drugged to the eyeballs because she had do not resuscitate as part of her advanced care plan.

And so it was just a matter of time.

So when they said, you've got three weeks to live, I think she ended up passing away within that timeframe.

And I'd written in my diary, she looked a lot better than I expected her to look, but she was extremely frail.

She was just gaunt and looked like a skeleton, but she still had colour in her face and her eyes hadn't completely sunk and she still had the capacity to communicate.

So I'm very fortunate that

My sister and I, Mel, my half-sister and I, actually had those last moments of life with Maggie.

So if anyone's had the deep misfortune of having a bedside vigil with someone they love, there's this moment where they just spark up and you think, wow, they're actually going to be okay.

But that's the last spark.

And we got to share that with her.

Just to know that we were able to settle our differences, forgive each other, just reassure each other that we loved each other and then let go.

What does it mean?

I think, you know, every woman is a mother, even if they don't have their own children.

I think, you know, each one of us has a nurturing quality.

That's why we're women.