Now what have you told other people about what happened? Are there people who you’ve chosen not to tell?

Most people, I’ve just said that my father died. Nearly everyone. That sort of covered it.

OK. Yes indeed. And presumably people knew that your father was very unwell?

Yes, I mean for a few weeks before, a month or so, you know, he had been getting worse and I told people. And then when we were hopeful [that her father could have an assisted death with Dignitas] I said he was, you know, really not well at all. And so no one was hugely surprised really. And so we were quite proud of ourselves for all of that as well. And then when people said about the funeral, I’d been off work ill following my minor operation, so I just told people we’d had the funeral quietly, just family. So, people don’t like to discuss death, except my family, who love it and have done it for years, and so they don’t like to ask you details at all. You know, most of them don’t look at you. They, a lot of people just ignore the fact. At work some people shuffle up and say, “Sorry to hear about your father” then rush off again. Very few of them look you in the eye and ask you questions about it. And anyway, you know, they’re not surprised if I don’t really want to talk about it. So, you know, very easy.

Was there anyone who you felt was unsympathetic or at all judgmental about what you were doing as a family?

Well, most people didn’t know. The only people who knew were very few of my friends. Oh, yes, well, I suppose one of my friends, who was a Roman Catholic. I sort of intimated at one time very stupidly that this was the way my father was thinking, and she was absolutely horrified.

On what grounds?

On the grounds that she clings to life and she finds it very difficult to accept that someone could so easily just stop it. Because I don’t think, well, certainly my father and I, because I am like him, you know, don’t see the necessity to cling to life. I think we have a different view of what it’s all about. And it’s definitely quality… has a lot to do with it. I think to most people it’s quantity.

I think it can be quite a challenging thing sort of existentially to know that some people will choose to end their life.

Well, because I come from that, I find it quite difficult to imagine that people can’t understand our point of view. And, you know, I find other people’s point of view so prescriptive as in many things. Which is, you know, I’m not saying, “Make it available, and you have to” but they are saying, “You can’t have it, because I don’t want it.” And, and I, I’ve always had a problem with that sort of attitude. I’m much more liberal than that.