"She was only 47"

I was told.
    "And leaves behind three young girls," I said.
There has been a death in the slightly more distant family - the Senior Cat's cousin has lost his daughter-in-law.
And yes, she was only forty-seven. We haven't heard the details yet although we know we will soon enough. The Senior Cat and his cousin, a first cousin-once-removed, are quite close. There are phone calls to him, emails to me. M....is the eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son - the "chief" of our branch of the clan.
Clan matters to us. I think I have said elsewhere in this blog that we are close-knit on that side.
So, although we didn't know T.... well, the news matters to us. It would matter anyway because the eldest girl doesn't turn  seventeen until next month. It is going to be very, very hard on all of them.
I know the clan will rally around. They will get help but that won't mean "Mum" will be there. For their father it won't mean that the love of his life will be there. There will be the empty chair at the table...and the silence. There won't be the checking of the sports kit for baseball or the shaking out of the pleats for their highland dancing costumes. There won't be checks on hair cuts and homework.
I thought of all this yesterday as I went about things. I went to the library to pick up some books. On the way there I was stopped by a man of African appearance. He was clearly lost. His first language was clearly not English. I explained how to get where he needed to go and he said "Asante".  It's Swahili for "thank you". I said "Asante" in return - because I was thankful, thankful he had asked me. (He looked startled and then, realising what he had done, asked if I speak Swahili. I had to say no - I only know a few useful words.) He's a long way from what was obviously once home and I wondered about his mother.
On the way home from the library someone else asked if the train station was the right one to get him somewhere. I told him what to do too. He looked alarming. He was big and covered in tattoos -but he was incredibly polite. I wondered about his mother too.
Someone called in. Her mother was waiting in the car. Her mother is almost as old as the Senior Cat and came to live with her five years ago - from the other side of the world, a faraway place.
And I thought of the three girls.