This was discussed on the last thread that I've just caught up on... I don't really wanna bring a depressing conversation to the new shiny thread so please feel free to ignore this one.
But I needed to talk about Nana's Flo cancer cuz I don't think it actually was that unrealistic. Brendan killed her. She didn't die naturally. She didn't die of cancer. She could have had months still left of her life.
When she was introduced she was still working, standing all day long with some chat and full hair, so she wasn't too near the end. Then she went a bit nuts riding horses and carts off into the night, but that was all lead by her mind, not her body...and then her body totally suffered for it cuz it couldn't keep up and she crashed and burned, to the point of ending up in hospital. But I took the hospital and the bed as consequences of her going too far, not simply that's where her body was at already.
My mum suffered back and forth with cancer for over 3 years before she died, and through chemo and insomnia and sickness and hospitalisations and bed-ridden periods, she still had the strongest, most defiant mind and she still made her body go to work and run a business for long days, and looked after us. It wasn't really until the week or so before she died when she was finally admitted to a hospice.
Nana Flo was supposed to be someone who was so lost in her own head, strong and determined. A fighter. A rebel. Whatever, but that's what she was supposed to be. Completely lead by this huge regret she had to sort out before her body gave in. Add that to the fact that we don't really know how long her body still could have gone on for... I dunno, I kinda bought it. Obviously she wasn't typical and it was drama, but I really didn't think it was actually out of the realms of possibility.
...sorry