"There was a code of silence in our family that was never broken. Even in periods when my mother was relatively well we never talked about what was happening. It was never given a name. It was never given a label. It was never given this place that you could say ‘oh, this is what's wrong.' I remember one aunt saying ‘well your mother is sick' and I might have been about 8 or 9 and I remember thinking; ‘can I catch this?' It was a little bit of foreshadowing in that but at the time I thought; ‘well if someone's sick it's like a cold or the flu. You can catch it.' If we do not decide consciously that we will talk to each other, to our loved one - how will we know more? How will we do better? How will we know the latest treatment advance? How will we know a helpful bit of advice? We need to ask: ‘what did you do? How did you do it? What did you learn?' We have to keep talking. Like we are now."
Excerpt from film interview, Karen.