Fiona Birt, 99-Bonk (PEOPLE 2022)

After being unable to visit for 2.5 years due to Covid lockdowns and flight cancellations, I finally made it to NZ in time to see my Dad, mere weeks before he passed. Just 6 months short of his 100th birthday, he cracked himself up with the joke “What goes 99-Bonk? A centipede with a wooden leg.” Over the two weeks I was there, he cycled through days of being lucid and jovial, to near-death like. Seeing him on this particular day helped me accept that he was ready to depart this world.

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