Oh Sarah ,I’d forgotton about that. Jacob brought 2 huge,whole, smelly ,old salmon , back from work , wrapped them in newspaper,placed them in Topshop bags and wrapped them in Christmas paper and gave them to Rosie and Flo on Christmas morning. I’m glad Thor remembers that , personally I remember you giving Kristian ( aged 32 ? )a pair of jeans and him immediately dropping his trousures to try them on !
I read the paper very differently to the way I read it 65 weeks ago. I am not a political animal, but am drawn to what people say about life/death / the universe. I feel a bond when anyone writes about their child dying. In my head and heart I reach out to them and feel an unexplainable connection with them and want to put a protective arm around their dead child.
Yesterday the stuff that affected me were these…Ian Clayton’s story about the tragic death of his 10yr old daughter ,Billie,who died in a terrible canoeing accident in 2006. I’ve just picked a little bit that resonates with me He writes ”You think,how do I begin to deal with this?How do we survive now ?Ypu don’t know where to put the grief, you don’t know what to do with it.Writing it down, putting it onto pages,is doing something with it some-where.It’s saying:there it is.That’s my grief.That’s her story”.
Then I read the letters in response to last weeks Lionel Shriver’s article ( she wrote ‘We need to talk about Kevin’ – I read it about 5yrs ago and it is an amazing book ) about her abondoning her dying friend. As one woman ( who has cancer ) wrote ”to the friends who have been able to stay the course and acknowledge my cancer ( in my case – grief ), I want to show the greatness of the gift they are giving me.
Finally, Felicity Kendall’s final Q&A answer to ‘What is the most important lesson life has taught you?”……….”Life is fragile and short. Don’t waste it by being mean or greedy”