Farewell to Nuala O’Faolain
Writer and journalist, Nuala O’Faolain, succumbed to her cancer just prior to midnight last night. I remember her from the time she worked for RTE. She was a brilliant and insightful journalist, and an excellent writer - though I have yet to savour her writing. For the past few years we have had a hardback copy of her novel My Dream of You on our bookshelves, thanks to Ana who purchased it. I’ve been meaning to read it but somehow never got round to it, and the book ended up hidden from view on the very top shelf of our living room library. When Nuala announced recently that she had terminal cancer and that she was refusing treatment for it, I made a mental note to start reading the book while she was still alive. Sadly, she has passed on and I still haven’t started it. Now that I have finally got it down from its lofty hiding place, I will read it in memory of her.
I too would like to lend my voice to how much Nuala impressed me with her heart rending interview. For its searing honesty, pain-filled plain speaking and openness. I think she has broken down walls of silence and fear by laying her heart out for us all to see, such depth, such warmth, such insight.
Although much of what she said seemed despairing; for me, it was honest, simply honest. Her despair was her own and the plumbing of this despair was in itself enlightening and refreshing, even in its darkness.
What Nuala did is allow the fact of how much despair is involved in dying and how much people keep it in ‘for the sake of others’, she has given us all permission to be free of the guilt of how awful we feel about dying, that we may not be able to be strong, ‘for others’, we need not be. It is our own journey through which, be it in faith or in darkness, we must walk alone.
Nuala, I wish you the calm you seek in the passing, the fading you desire into the darkness. May it welcome you gently and carry you wherever it may.
Comment by Geraldine Brien
May 13th, 2008 @ 8:17 am