My mother was lucky to believe in some kind of life beyond death but I do not have this faith. The only consolation I will have, if I do not achieve instant extinction, will be my own last judgement on my life as I look back on it. I must hope that I live my life now in such a way that, like my mother, I will be able to die without regret. As my mother lay on her death-bed, drifting in and out of consciousness, sometimes lapsing into her German mother-tongue she said: ‘It’s been a wonderful life. We have said everything there is to say.’
