EXCERPT FROM EMAIL TO FRIEND WHO IS MOVING PERMANENTLY FROM MELBOURNE

This is an old friend who I probably won’t get to see before she moves away forever. This is part of a farewell email I wrote, in response to her excited news about the land she has bought up north in Australia.

"We're still in hospital with our darling. I'm so in love with Rose, and I think that what I love about reading of your . . . joy is that with Rose's illness I also feel I'm having a great adventure, and that I'm excited about what's in store for her (desperate as her situation seems on some days. But even those desperate days seem packed with life and the most burning, passionate love possible).

I'm blessed to have her - I feel alive alive alive. She is the most astonishing little person I've ever met."