'We've lost him': those three small words changed everything. Angela's Father was 59 when he died suddenly and unexpectedly. She was not with him; she could not whisper last words or hold his hand. She could not help ease his passage from life to death This is her story, told through the stories of some of the hands she had the privilege to hold in her work as a palliative care nurse. It speaks of learning to live with loss and grief and how using that experience to care for others helped her find peace and joy in unexpected circumstances. There are lessons to be learned here about how to live, how to die, and how we can all learn to be a little bit braver about both.