I found out today that my cousin Margaret has passed away. Margaret was a cousin on my dad’s side of the family and not one I had seen for a good number of years. I was never close to my dad’s side of the family at all so when I think of my cousins, I tend to only think about the cousins I have on my mum’s side.

I can’t even remember the last time I saw Margaret and probably would’ve walked past her in the street unaware of her identity. Believe me, I’ve done that with other cousins on my dad’s side and been really embarrassed about it. Anyway, I remember Margaret more from when we used to visit my Nana and Papa when I was a girl and I always remembered her smiling and laughing a lot. I’ve no idea what she was like as an adult though but I can’t help feeling angry at her.

Margaret had a kidney transplant when she was in her late teens but she didn’t look after herself properly and didn’t take the medication she was supposed to take on a daily basis. As a result, her body rejected the kidney and she had to have it done again a few years later. She stopped taking her medication again, causing both kidneys to fail, but it was actually the pneumonia that killed her.

The reason I’m so angry is she was a single parent to an eleven year old girl and she should have been doing all she could to ensure she stayed healthy for her daughter’s sake. It may sound like I’m being harsh here but she was given TWO chances to get her health back and she wasted them both. How many other people get the chance to have one transplant, never mind two? Now, she’s dead at forty and her daughter is an orphan.