Hazel celebrated the occasion in the company of her husband, daughter Jess, her grandchildren and family and friends, who gathered at the drop of a hat to all be together for the precious moment.

Sitting in the sunshine three weeks later while their mum was resting inside, sisters Lucy and Jess share what the hospice experience is like for their family…

Jess: My children love it. They always ask to come here. The garden's so lovely. There are flowers everywhere. Who wouldn't want to be here? There are swings for them, a Wendy house. They love it, they both really want to come here, which is weird but nice. The counsellors here are lovely. Sue's given us support and she has said that they're always there if my children need to speak to anybody. She's been helpful in giving advice on how to talk to them and books that I can read to them for them to understand.

Lucy: They're so young, it's hard to know what to say and how to say it. It's quite nice to know the support is there but they're not in your face all the time, I think that would be frustrating, but they just kind of float around and you know that they're there. It's a very accepting environment. I find that one of the things they do really well here, is they don't avoid talking about dying and that's something I've found really helpful because that's the reality, that's what we're living in, and to skirt around that topic is not helpful in any way. It doesn't help us process, it doesn't help us accept it or make it what she wants it to be, so I think that's been really helpful. Peace always comes to mind when I think of it, and safe. That autonomy that it gives back to her, actually not even just to her, to us as well.

Jess: You kind of instantly think a hospice is this really daunting, scary place where people just go to die, but actually it can be a really nice place as well. They're really accommodating and couldn't do more for you here.

Lucy: When they come in and check on mum, they also check on us a lot of the time; how are you? Do you need anything? Just so thoughtful. I couldn't praise the hospice enough for how much it's done for us. If you're in so much pain or you're feeling so sick, the place you want to be is a place where people are looking after you and actually care whether you're okay or not. It's the best of a bad situation because the situation we're going through is heartbreaking and horrible and it's just worst case scenario. Our life right now is just so surreal, it's really bizarre but the fact that we get to do that here rather than somewhere else, makes it that tiny bit better. It has made such a difference for Mum and that's been so important and it’s personal.

Jess: I was dreading coming here and scared and emotional because it's a hospice but this is why we're doing the Pier to Pier walk because it's such an amazing place that we want it to carry on going for other people. There are lots people joining our team walking from Clacton Pier to Walton Pier and we've had a lot of support and raised quite a lot of money now. Everyone should experience their last months, weeks, days here. It's not going to be a nice experience for us at the end but also we haven't got that atmosphere of it being daunting and dark and gloomy. We're going to have, hopefully, visions of it being in a nice homely place where we've all felt safe and welcomed. 

Lucy: I don't doubt that when that moment comes that we will be looked after. I don't have a single doubt in my mind that there won't be people there to wrap us up in a blanket when we need to be. 

This story may not be published elsewhere without express permission from St Helena Hospice.