I met up with a lady I used to work with, when I was 22/23. I haven’t seen her since then actually. She’s called Gisela and is from Venezuela. She’s a lovely lady, and her English now is far better than it was back then, which makes chatting far easier.

She had said before we met up that she had had a rough time, with lots of sadness. I didn’t know what, other than the her brother having died after years of disabling MS, which is obviously bad enough for one family, by itself. When she came though, she told me that both her parents had died recently too, which of course is inevitable at some point, although heartbreaking for Gisela.

She then told me about her other brother, and I’m fairly certain you would never have heard anything like this. …

He imported ( to Venezuela ) two emus from China. At the time of their arrival he had a cold, so his immune system was slightly compromised.

One of the two emus had Avian Flu. Her brother caught the flu and died within a week. He was 45.