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It was lovely to see so many friends at Northampton, and
once again, the whole thing was a triumph of organisation by
John, Chris and Keith, all despite the hour-long car park wait
at 4 o'clock on the Saturday morning, with the fire alarm
ringing in our ears. Well done, boys (and your
behind-the-scenes hard-working wives!) The greatest relief of
the weekend was that it wasn't Dylan fans who set off the fire
extinguishers, and the greatest pleasure was in re-discovering
the fact that Dylan fans are the kindest and most caring people
on the planet (bar none). They never let you down; at least,
the ones I know don't. (If you hang around with ones of the
other sort, you've got no-one but yourself to blame). |
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Some time ago I wrote about one particular Dylan friendship that has
meant so much to me over the last six or seven lives, my friendship with
Monica. I wrote about my admiration for her and her husband, Derek, who
were meeting the challenge of his newly-diagnosed cancer with amazing
strength and dignity. That courage and perseverance, on both of their
parts, has continued unabated for the last two years, through many ups
and downs as the cancer has run its course, but tragically it is a fight
that was not to be won, and as I write this Derek is very close to
dying.
I have been spending as much time as I can with
them both. Monica is nursing Derek at home, and doing the most
fantastic job imaginable in terribly difficult circumstances. I am, as
ever, in complete awe of her single-mindedness, determination and
energy. Being with them in the past few weeks has been inspirational,
and (unexpectedly) as life-affirming an experience as I have ever had,
and I know nobody will mind if I can't get my thoughts around to Bob
Dylan this month. He's still there, and he keeps cropping up in
conversations Monica and I have had recently, but Monica can't listen to
him (and won't be able to for quite a while, I guess - and I understand
that feeling: he just gets too close the truth sometimes for it to be
bearable) and I cannot summon up any enthusiasm for reading and
reviewing books just at the moment.
Next month, a
review of Andy Muir's book. In the meantime, if you have a God, please
send up a prayer for Derek and Monica.
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