Can people stop dying, please, at least for a bit? The last six months or so of my life have been punctuated far more than I’d like them to be by the news of deaths. My grandmother Eileen died in August at 95, which is a pretty good innings by any stretch of the imagination; the others have all gone long before their time, whether scholars in my field like Robert Wokler (cancer) or Iris Marion Young (cancer), colleagues and friends here in Oxford like Ewen Green (MS-related) or Peter Derow (heart attack), the poor 15-year old chap who rode his bike into the river a few hundred yards from where I live, or, most recently, one of my undergraduate political philosophy students here at Balliol, Andrew Mason, whom I’d barely got to know, but who was clearly a great guy. It’s too many. And I’d like it to stop.
My condolences, Chris. How awful.
Chris,
I am writing about Andrew for a newspaper profile, can you get in touch with me please?
Steve
Patchen: Thanks.
Steve: No. (I don’t much want to talk to any journalists about any of this.)
Dear Chris: My condolences as well.
Sobering thoughts. My condolences also.
Gosh, Chris, I’m so sorry — and rather shocked to hear about Andrew Mason. Terrible.
Chris, I’m sorry to hear this, particularly Andrew Mason, who would have been in the year below me and someone I may have come across during my student days. My condolences to you on all of this.
HI! I have no idea who you are but I’m doing research on my family and I guess we’re related cause I say your entry about Sir James Brooke, I’m also a distant cousin and I did track it back to where. he’s my great great 2nd cousin. I also have the book by Syliva brooke, it’s a actually a good book. I just think It’s really kewl so hey! you’d like to contact me, my e-mail is funduu_roxy@yahoo.com
it be pretty kewl to hear from ya cause it’s always kewl to see who you’re related to and all
~Roxy Brooke~
[Hi, Roxy: I’ve been told that I’m a distant cousin of Sir James Brooke of Sarawak, but we’re talking about a common ancestor a dozen generations ago or more, and I don’t know how the family connection really works. So it sounds as if you’re a far closer relative to him than I am, and – if this is right – a very, very distant relative of mine, a fourteenth cousin, or something like that.]
His grave can be found at Sheepstor, on the edge of Dartmoor.
http://www.devon.gov.uk/etched?url=etched/ixbin/hixclient.exe&_IXP_=1&_IXR=110386
There was important discussion of whether he got his testicles shot off in the London Review of Books a few years ago:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n24/kupe01_.html
Presumably an exhumation of the corpse could settle the matter one way or the other, though it’s more fun to speculate.
Your ancestors were getting their testicles shot off in the London Review of Books? And they say Dale Peck’s vicious.
A very distant cousin isn’t really an ancestor, but yes.
Chris
I’m Andrew Mason’s Mum. Thank you so much for rejecting the journalist enquiry. That’s about as coherent as I can get right now