https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/10/30/the-dead-man-in-clerkenwell-i/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Thu, 02 Nov 2023 20:17:24 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/10/30/the-dead-man-in-clerkenwell-i/#comment-1526584 Thu, 02 Nov 2023 20:17:24 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=197761#comment-1526584 Thank you for such a thought provoking post.

]]> https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/10/30/the-dead-man-in-clerkenwell-i/#comment-1526180 Mon, 30 Oct 2023 15:18:25 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=197761#comment-1526180 I found this a very doleful post. I had hoped to visit the crypt as part of my jam-packed itinerary for the recent “Open House” event, but a sweaty Northern Line train stuck at Moorgate threw my carefully scheduled afternoon out of kilter, and I ended up missing the crypt and legging it to Hoxton Hall ( and was still late).
Like you, I nursed my mother until I had managed without sleep for far too many days and it was impacting very badly on my well-being. She was slipping away and there was nothing I could do. I don’t know what is worse, enduring for weeks in a space between life or death or, as in the case of my daughter, death was so shocking, so unexpected, that I still do not fully believe it.
But living is the best. Living a full and happy life, packing in and bringing as much joy as you can. That’s my philosophy and not a bad one I think.

]]> https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/10/30/the-dead-man-in-clerkenwell-i/#comment-1526168 Mon, 30 Oct 2023 12:02:59 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=197761#comment-1526168 Sad … and lovely too ..

]]> https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/10/30/the-dead-man-in-clerkenwell-i/#comment-1526151 Mon, 30 Oct 2023 08:17:43 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=197761#comment-1526151 What a wonderful piece of writing. It took me back to my parents deaths – they both waited until we had left the room to take their final breaths, leaving their physical shells behind like cocoons, the animation of their bodies gone. Unlike the dead man of Clerkenwell we have photographs of them living breathing and enjoying life to remember them by for which we must be thankful.

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