I have often written of the slow and agonising death of my beloved grandfather. For the final six years of his life he lingered in a state of paralysis until, finally, a second stroke gave him lasting peace…For us, he was still a person endowed with moral majesty. He was the pater familias – the father of the family – who we honoured and loved as if he were still in complete possession of all his faculties. It was the radiance of his beaming smile, a radiance which regularly pierced his paralysis, which proved that he was more than precious.

I have often written of the slow and agonising death of my beloved grandfather. For the final six years of his life he lingered in a state of paralysis until, finally, a second stroke gave him lasting peace…For us, he was still a person endowed with moral majesty. He was the pater familias – the father of the family – who we honoured and loved as if he were still in complete possession of all his faculties. It was the radiance of his beaming smile, a radiance which regularly pierced his paralysis, which proved that he was more than precious.