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Posted on February 18, 2006 | Comments (0)
Posted on February 14, 2006 | Comments (4)
We met up again for drinks and a chat (about photography and holidays mainly), and continued to email each other until one day* she told me she'd been diagnosed with cancer. They thought it was ovarian at first, but more tests revealed a far more dealy strain. Things didn't look good, but Helene remained positive for a while. When her emails became less frequent, I knew the treatment was affecting her badly.
On 3rd February, Helene died. I received an email about this, I suppose because I was in her address book, for which I am extremely grateful. Apparently, "She became very ill over Christmas, rallied for a while but died peacefully on Friday lunchtime". Reading this message made me very sad and I was hoping to go to the funeral today, to learn more about her and say goodbye, but I didn't make it because I am too disorganised and was nervous about a service filled with people I don't know. I hope it was fitting.
All I know is that Helene Hill worked for Manchester Metropolitan University as a senior lecturer in the business school. She lived in Chorlton with her partner, Kirsten, enjoyed photography and didn't even live to be 40-years-old. I didn't tell Helene, but one of my cousins developed Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma a few years back and didn't see his 20th birthday - at least she had time to do things with her life. I hope she'll be remembered.
*I forget exactly when, and I was emailing Helene from my old work address at the time so I can't check back.
Posted on February 10, 2006 | Comments (0)
Quite how I'm going to make up for six weeks of relying on him for driving and washing up (as well as his fabulous cooking), I don't know. Suspect he'll have some ideas of his own though! Thank you, lovely.
Posted on February 01, 2006 | Comments (4)
You're fired!
This week, as part of its hype for the new series of The Apprentice, the BBC quoted and linked to my review of the first series on The F-Word. Great news, but it does make me feel bad for not having used my time more productively in the last few weeks and written some more articles for them.
Posted on February 18, 2006 | Comments (0)
Awesome
The list of things I can't do one-handed is growing steadily but, on the plus side, I now have a full cast (leaving me with one chunky red arm) and things are healing well. So, I'm enjoying what will hopefully be my final week off work with Kaiser Chiefs covering the KLF's What Time Is Love on Radio One and my new toy. Thanks, yet again, go to Topper for my lovely tiny shiny (and white) gadget *grin*
Posted on February 14, 2006 | Comments (4)
Saying goodbye to someone I hardly knew
In September 2004, I started a basic photography course with around fifteen other people. One of the group was called Helene and, although her name was pronounced as if it had no third e, the tutor pronounced it "Helleen" for the rest of the ten week course. We used to chat while we waited for the class to start and during the coffee break so, by the time we finished in December, I knew enough about her to find her work email address on the internet and ask how her next course was going.
We met up again for drinks and a chat (about photography and holidays mainly), and continued to email each other until one day* she told me she'd been diagnosed with cancer. They thought it was ovarian at first, but more tests revealed a far more dealy strain. Things didn't look good, but Helene remained positive for a while. When her emails became less frequent, I knew the treatment was affecting her badly.
On 3rd February, Helene died. I received an email about this, I suppose because I was in her address book, for which I am extremely grateful. Apparently, "She became very ill over Christmas, rallied for a while but died peacefully on Friday lunchtime". Reading this message made me very sad and I was hoping to go to the funeral today, to learn more about her and say goodbye, but I didn't make it because I am too disorganised and was nervous about a service filled with people I don't know. I hope it was fitting.
All I know is that Helene Hill worked for Manchester Metropolitan University as a senior lecturer in the business school. She lived in Chorlton with her partner, Kirsten, enjoyed photography and didn't even live to be 40-years-old. I didn't tell Helene, but one of my cousins developed Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma a few years back and didn't see his 20th birthday - at least she had time to do things with her life. I hope she'll be remembered.
*I forget exactly when, and I was emailing Helene from my old work address at the time so I can't check back.
Posted on February 10, 2006 | Comments (0)
Thank you
Thanks to Topper, things aren't nearly as bad as they could be. He took me to hospital for my operation yesterday, waited until they found me a bed, stayed while the surgeon put wires in my bones, and then hung around chatting to me while I recovered. We went home via the shop and got some chocolate too. I'm feeling a bit groggy today as the strong painkillers I've been given are making me sleepy, but at least the pain's not too bad when I take them. Hopefully I'm finally on the road to recovery now.
Quite how I'm going to make up for six weeks of relying on him for driving and washing up (as well as his fabulous cooking), I don't know. Suspect he'll have some ideas of his own though! Thank you, lovely.
Posted on February 01, 2006 | Comments (4)