Once the sun comes up it will be a new day. This one has certainly been a challenge, but now all she wants is to go for a swim and have a good night’s sleep.

She pours into her black speedo, ties her hair up and covers it with a floral swim cap, which she hates but must do otherwise her bleached blond hair turns green. And isn’t it enough to have bleached blond hair – god, what a cliché.

After getting suited up, she walks out onto her patio and takes in the night air. God, how she loves the smell of the balmy, tropical air mingled with chlorine, and just a tinge of salt. The night is black, with a chandelier of stars hanging overhead, and as she heads to the pool she feels as if she is being embraced by the heavens.

At the waters edge, she looks to the steps, but uncharacteristically dives right in.

The water is freezing.

The cold, crisp day has dropped the temperature to what, she doesn’t know. What she knows is that there is a massive pain in her head. She thinks about this morning when she woke up, feeling on top the world, and how, only minutes into her day, the phone rang and she heard the news about her husband, dead in his car after plunging off the cliff into the Pacific. How much she had loved him and how much there was still left to take care of.

But this would not be done by her, because as she surfaced, she had already lost consciousness. The glitch in her brain, triggered by trauma and the shock of a freezing cold plunge, stole her breath and her days. She lay silent in her black suit and bleach blond locks enclosed in their tombs, already embraced by heaven.