The two brothers of my patient had asked to speak with me. We went to the little visitors lounge which was next door to their brother’s room. They wanted to know what was happening to their brother. They knew he was unwell but they needed to know the extent of his illness as they needed to make plans for the rest of the family.

I recounted the history of their brother’s illness. Worsening cancer had led to worsening pain, which we had only just controlled a week after he had been admitted. The pain had been troubling him for months but he had been too scared to interact with our hospice team. It was only in the past week when the pain had become unbearable that he had agreed to let us help him. I was about to talk about what I had seen, a daily deterioration in their brother’s condition when there was a tap at the window.

Tap, tap, tap. It was a branch from the tree outside hitting the window of the lounge. It was moving because a bird was flying from one part of the branch to another. A small bird with a grey back, light brown belly and white and black tail feathers shaped like a fan – A fantail. The brothers looked at each other through widened eyes, they looked scared. “It’s a fantail. You know what that means.”

Pīwakawaka/Fantail: in Māori mythology a messenger, brings news of death from the gods to the people.

We talked about how I thought their brother was dying. I thought he might only have days left to live and that we would try our best to keep him as comfortable as possible.