Mourning in a pandemic

On Friday I shall be giving a plenary presentation at an Auto/Biography annual conference. This is being delivered in honour of and in remembrance of a dear friend, David Morgan. It has brought to the surface feelings I had when the pandemic started, that when people I knew had died, because I hadn’t seen them for a lengthy time and could not attend funerals et cetera, it was difficult grasping that they were indeed dead, no more. What is the difference between never seeing them while they were living, and then never seeing them because they were dead? It is the latter that was so difficult to grasp, this different kind of absence. The same thing has happened here. I keep expecting my friend to pop up and tell me things that are wrong, points he wants dealt with in more detail, and to crack a joke or two. It makes it very difficult to mourn, because it is very difficult to grasp what has happened.

Last updated:  2 December 2021