Blowing in the wind
I saw my Dad die a horrible painful death from cancer a few years back and felt, as you'd expect, pretty shit about it. All that stuff you read about people slipping away is bollocks. My Dad died waving his arms around terrified of whatever he saw coming his way. Nasty stuff.

Anyway, moving swiftly on, he was cremated and my Mum, brother and I took his ashes to the cemetary where his Mum and Dad are buried. I hadn't got the guts and Mum was in pieces so my Brother did the scattering thing.

Now, my brother didn't really think things through on this one because rather than crouch down and carefully scatter the ashes of our recently departed loved one he stood up and just tipped him out. Cue a particularly strong gust of wind which blew most of my Dad all over my brother's trousers and shoes. The rest of him blew in all our faces and was duly ingested into our lungs. Now, I don't know whether you've been around someone with advanced cancer, but it has a very particular smell which is a long way from pleasant. I'll always remember breathing in and realising that I'd just snorted my Dad. Not in the Keith Richards (allegedly) way, just by breathing.

I had to turn away at this point as I was pissing myself laughing at the ghostly figure of my brother covered in dead Dad's ashes and thought Mum might find it a tad inappropriate. I managed to get it together and some hours later when I got him on his own I asked my brother what he'd thought when Dad blew all over his trousers and shoes. "I thought it was bloody hilarious" he said, adding "He always was getting under my feet". The best bit is, my old man would have pissed himself laughing just as much as we did. RIP Dad. :)

P.S. Without a word of a lie, I smelt that cancer smell my Dad had twice in the next 6 months in 2 different places when I was on my own. I reckon they do hang around a bit you know...
(littlechav Suffering from too many red bulls since, Fri 29 Feb 2008, 14:17, 1 reply)

I know what you mean about the smell.
Dad went through various cancers, and it was there over the disinfectant and other hospice smells.
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Sat 1 Mar 2008, 7:30, closed)