Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Interlude


Hubby took the day off work and took over much of the childcare so I could go out. I went to the support group coffee morning to catch up with friends, followed by a dash around Tesco to stock up on enough to keep the kids fed until the weekend!

The postman brought a mixed bundle of goodies...some knitting wool and patterns from eBay and an invoice for my charity work which was in a burnt envelope. Presumably it was the victim of a postbox fire and it was amazing that it found its way to me, even if it was a little scorched!

Three notable things:

1. Some time ago I read about journalist Dina Rabinovitch's book Take Off Your Party Dress on Dovegreyreader's blog. Earlier this month I found a copy in a charity shop and bought it. I put it to one side, as it is about the author's experiences with breast cancer and since it is just three years, almost to the day, since I lost one of my best friends to the disease, the subject is still quite hard for me. Yesterday, on reading that Dina had died, I finally picked up the book. It is well worth a read, she was a brave lady.

2. There is a touching piece by Libby Purves in The Times today.It is about her son Nicholas Heiney, who committed suicide in his early twenties but left behind some remarkable writing, which is now to be published. Read this and contemplate the fate of sensitive young men in today's society. It rings all too many alarm bells for me.

3. But then in the main section of the paper I read this line in the contents column on page 2:
Libby Purves introduces the writings of her son, to be published soon, who committed suicide at 23
Is it just me, or is that very dodgy grammar and punctuation?

5 comments:

Anne Brooke said...

So sorry to hear about your friend, Cathy. Cancer is a terrible thing. It takes too many too soon.

Sending you hugs

A
xxx

Casdok said...

Good to hear your hubby gave you a hand!

Unknown said...

Glad you had a day off. Hope it helped to refresh your soul and your strength. ((()))s for the loss of your friend. x

Cathy said...

Thanks ladies!

Cx

Catherine said...

I, too, have been reading the extracts from Nick Heiney's writings and have been moved by them. He obviously had a vivid inner life and was one of those people who seem to lack the layer of skin that protects most people. His final poem was exceptional.

Like you, I am only too well aware of how vulnerable sensitive and 'different' young men are in the society we live in.