Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Death and Therapy

I heard yesterday that a cousin of mine has died - at a very ripe old age. As a result of the second marriage of my grandfather, my cousins have a wide age range. He was a bit of a character – as I will no doubt hear at the eulogy. He was a POW in Germany, Entertainments Officer, I believe, and then after the war, led anti-fascist protests in the East End. As it happens, I was listening to the history of cotton on the radio today, and heard how Oswald Mosley’s men infiltrated the mill-workers in the cotton industry in the thirties. We flatter ourselves that it could never happen here. Oswald Mosley apparently, like Hitler, had a charismatic personality and could win people over. Fortunately, there was, it seems, sufficient opposition to stop him in his tracks.

Also on the radio, today or yesterday, was the poet Danny Abse, talking about his wife, Joan, who was killed in a car crash, two years ago. Here in Guildford, Irene and I were part of a group who sponsored his appearance at the Guildford Literary Festival, probably only a year before that, and we had the pleasure of taking both him and his wife out to dinner, after his performance. He had written a diary since her death, and talked of the value of putting one’s words onto paper, after a traumatic event of that kind. It confirmed my belief that to write one’s grief down is always good therapy. It helped me after my daughter’s death. It is of course an added bonus if the account is then readable later and not only acts as a therapy, but a memorial too, as I believe is the case, with Danny Abse’s book.

The news of the day, is of course the release of Alan Johnston. When I switched on the radio this morning, someone was mid sentence and I didn’t know initially what had happened to him. It was very moving later to hear of his release, his words and those of family and friends. No doubt he will also need to go over his own story and receive help to recover from his ordeal. But how wonderful it is when a story ends happily. If only it could be true for more people and their tragedies.

2 comments:

Anne Brooke said...

Sorry to hear about the cousin, Jackie - it brings similar memories back of course. Sending you virtual hugs.

And also very good news about Johnston - I was really pleased about that.

A
xxx

Jackie Luben said...

Thanks Anne. Naturally, it is sad to lose a family member, but in this case, he had a full and exciting life, which I'm sure will be celebrated at his funeral.

Jackie