B is for Budapest, C is for Candles, Chrysanthemums and Cemeteries
sophieduffy
by sophieduffy
3M ago
When I booked to go on a city break to Budapest during half-term so my teacher-daughter could come along, I didn’t realise that we’d be there for Halloween. Or All Saints Day and All Souls Day on November 1st and 2nd respectively. A happy coincidence as I’d written about Zaduszki, the Polish Catholic tradition of ..read more
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R is for Rites of Passage: A Funeral, a Wedding, a Graduation and Two Book Launches
sophieduffy
by sophieduffy
7M ago
No, this isn’t a title of a rom com but the events I’ve been involved in/attended so far this summer – all of them rites of passage. The funeral was of course a sad event, but it was also a thankful one – for the life of my Uncle Richard who died aged ninety-four. Married ..read more
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C is for Celebration
sophieduffy
by sophieduffy
9M ago
It might seem impossible to celebrate the death of a loved one but now we have an annual day to do just that. While some countries and cultures already celebrate those who have gone before, the UK is traditionally quiet on this most taboo of subjects: death. But times are changing. In fact, the last bank holiday in May is now known as Celebration Day – a day when we can remember those we have lost and celebrate who they were in life. There are arguments against this: don’t we already have enough special days on the annual calendar? Wouldn’t it be better to weave conversations about death into ..read more
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L is for Lancaster, Levi’s and Leap Year: Part 2
sophieduffy
by sophieduffy
11M ago
February 28th, 2021. I have just finished five and a half months of chemotherapy. Next week, I start five days of radiotherapy. The end is in sight though, as time passes, I will come to understand that, when you have had cancer, there is never really an end. You will always have to push down the feeling that, at any point in the near or distant future, it might come back and snatch away your life. This is the bad bit. The good bit is that it makes you appreciate every day. It makes you grateful for the people you have in your life. 2020 was not a normal year for anyone. Mine is just another s ..read more
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L is for Lancaster, Levi’s and Leap Year: Part 1
sophieduffy
by sophieduffy
1y ago
It’s 1986. I am an undergrad at Lancaster University, far away from my south Devon home. I’m used to rain but not to this bitter wind that shrieks like a banshee through the bleak Gulag-y landscape that is campus. It’s a different time: Reagan and Thatcher are BFFs, Nelson Mandela is still to be freed and Fat Boy Slim and his mates from Hull have a chart hit with an a cappella version of Caravan of Love. Meanwhile, Colin Baker is the sixth Doctor, Neighbours debuts in the UK and Dirty Den hands Angie Watts divorce papers on Christmas Day. On campus, there is a sea of double denim, dungarees an ..read more
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A Letter from Mabel
sophieduffy
by sophieduffy
1y ago
Been a while since I transcribed one of my great-grandmother’s letters from her time in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon. (Trigger warnings: she was from another era, another time so her words are not always PC.) Horekelly, Madampe, Ceylon December 4th, 1900 My dearest Mother A Happy Christmas to you and everyone, and I hope you will all have a good time. It seems such ages since the Christmas before last. I don’t count last year at all because it was so muddling and strange. I suppose George and I will have a very quiet time by our lone lone selves. I don’t even expect there will be a service at t ..read more
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P is for Pet Loss
sophieduffy
by sophieduffy
1y ago
Millie and Susan When we first get a puppy, back in 2007, our kids are 8, 10 and 11-years-old. We visit the litter a couple of weeks after they are born. Six little furry things, snuggled up together, paddling tiny paws against their mother. We choose the only girl. Black with a white flash across her chest. My mum comes along to see them. Lethal. She holds a squeaking brindle boy and falls in love. In a few weeks, they come home. Buddy goes to Mum’s. Perfect timing as my step-father has recently had to go into a nursing home as he has advanced Alzhiemer’s. Buddy helps fill the void. Brings li ..read more
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I is for Icicle
sophieduffy
by sophieduffy
1y ago
St Michael and All Angels, Bampton What I love about visiting churches is the odd stories that crop up. Yesterday I went in search of a reconfigured headstone that remembers a man killed in unlucky circumstances. ‘In memory of the clerk’s son Bless my iiiiii Here he lies In a sad pickle Killed by icicle In the year 1776.’ Stone embedded to the left of the tower doorTower door ..read more
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Y is for Yew
sophieduffy
by sophieduffy
1y ago
One of the yews of St Mary’s Last weekend, on our journey back from Llangollen to the Wirral, we stopped off in Overton-on-Dee to count off the last of the Seven Wonders of Wales: Maybe not the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but the twenty-three yew trees in the churchyard of St Mary’s form an impressive circle around the church and are well worth a visit. During a chance meeting with the organist amongst the tombs, we discovered a little more about the trees. Now supported by yew props and protected by railings, the oldest is classed as ancient.* This tree predates the church which was most like ..read more
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D is for Death
sophieduffy
by sophieduffy
1y ago
St Thomas’ churchyard, Heptonstall Our little lives are rounded with a sleep. This week Hero Press announced that they will publish my first non-fiction book D is for Death in April 2024. It’s been a project of love and has been all-consuming but I am excited that you will finally get to read it in a few months. In the meantime, here is the blurb. Hero acquires unique A to Z guide to death  Hero Press has acquired world rights for D is for Death by Sophie Duffy. This fascinating A to Z of death will be published in the UK on 20th April 2024. Rights were acquired by Christian Müller ..read more
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