The older I get the more convinced I am that life is a series of phases that you typically experience in groups or cohorts of similarly aged people e.g. school, leaving home and going to university, first marriages, first children, first divorces, first grandchildren, first deaths etc. The phase I and many of my childhood friends are currently in is that of “first children”.
I was not ready to be pushed into the group that have experienced the first death of a contemporary. A friend of mine with who I ride horses was one of the seven French people killed last week in the terrorist attack in Marrakech. Cathy Lombard was a beautiful girl who died in last Thursday’s nail bomb attack whilst having lunch in broad daylight. I and the rest of the riders from the club only found out on Saturday morning whilst we were jumping in Gradignan near Bordeaux. It came as something of a shock to say the least. Her horse was in the box next to mine this weekend and it was difficult to walk past Ness Du Loch without thinking about Cathy. Her boyfriend, Jean, was also killed. He was one of the kindest men I had met in a long time.
It’s difficult to comprehend, and it’s certainly very sad to think that I’ll never see her cheeky smiling face again – when I got home from Bordeaux this evening it was tough watching a film of us jumping together last October – a competition that turned out to be one of her last. It’s also difficult to remain open minded to other cultures who might think that this type of behaviour is in any way justifiable. http://www.parismatch.com/Actu-Match/Monde/Actu/Jean-et-Cathy-victimes-du-terrorisme-a-Marrakech-278565/ and http://www.lindependant.fr/2011/05/01/michel-py-la-mort-de-jean-et-cathy-a-provoque-un-vrai-choc-a-leucate,12858.php
No comments:
Post a Comment