Brendan Courtney: 'They say there's three things you have to manage and get over - death, divorce and disease. I've had a divorce, and the matriarch in the family is very sick.'

"It's been a year of two halves for me, feeling the joy of a new home while experiencing deep loss with my mother's passing. My renovations symbolize a new chapter in my life, even as I pause to grieve."

"Sitting in my airy kitchen-living room, I can see the mountains and the sea, which reminds me that while life changes drastically, beauty can still surround us in those moments of hardship."

Read at Independent