I often ask him to tell me about what he has read in the papers while I prepare supper. Sometimes he reads part or the whole of an article. Yesterday he read a piece that appeared, at least initially, to be about the death of Paul O’Grady and his alter ego Lily Savage but it was in fact about Dan Leno the first ‘proper’ drag artist. He, like O’Grady, was loved by royalty and gained international fame. It was a lovely essay. Then he read from Matthew Paris’s article about the huge losses on both sides in the Ukranian War. It was a moving text. It stopped me still. The callousness of Putin’s tactics are too alarming reminiscent of the cavalier way young men where offered up as cannon-fodder in WW1. Oh, have we learnt nothing?
The call he makes to her afterwards is lighter, though not really. Her tiredness and resignation comes through the line. She tries, as does he, but the heaviness is there. We ask about her Chair Ballet. Apparently it is only once a week. They offer other exercise classes such as one called ‘Oomph’ but she doesn’t like the music. It seems that Chair Ballet is just that, and that they strike their poses (though inevitably some fall soon asleep) to actual ballet music.
I am heavy with compassion for each and everyone of these souls. It leaks from me.
