Bravery

I never really had an opinion of Jade Goody, apart from the one that I have of most ridiculous wanabe's who decide to act themselves on reality TV.
I wasn't interested in her when she was on Big Brother, I didn't care about the headlines and the rumours but I did admire the way that she made money from the attention that she had. She did that in a way that most other BB hopefuls who are two weeks as a z list celeb before falling of the flatbed wagon manage.
She did it well and respect to her for that, she knew the game and the goal.
And now as she nears the end of her very young life she has made a concious decision to carry on playing the media game for the sake of her children. Jade Goody knows that the opportunity that she has been given will not be passed on to her kids and that before she goes she has to do everything that she can to assure their future. Like some old fashioned warrior Jade has decided to look the horde in the eye and knowing that she will not survive just face them down to the end.
Some people wonder if she knows what she is doing, she will be extremly sick, feel awful, she will at times look terrible and more than anything desire peace or solitude for her last days but instead she has decided to take the complete opposite direction and add the kind of harrasment and invasion of privacy that most people, celebritys included do not desire even when they are well.
It makes no difference to her life, but I have changed my mind about Jade, I like her. But I won't watch her die in a Big Brother style media frenzy. Everyone else can tune in if they want, but I am just going to ignore that and let her go. She will never know that I changed my mind about her and it wouldn't make any difference to her if she did but it makes a difference to me and I really hope she squeezes every penny she can.

While I was thinking about Jade I noticed a link on Google news to an article written by John Suchet

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/elderhealth/4641709/John-Suchet-My-Bonnie-is-gone-its-as-if-she-has-died.html

I started to read and just couldn't stop. I don't want to say anything about this article, except that it moved me to tears, and that really doesn't happen very often.

Meanwhile my desktop background is a picture of Emily taken just a few months ago, she is bright and happy and reaching for stars as they fall from my hand. She is in hospital again facing more operations and further long term illness and she is she brave, but is so young she doesn't realise it. She doesn't want the nurse to do tests and pants to supress her fear because she knows that tests must be done. She looks the other way as needles go in with a kind of denial "If I don't see it, perhaps it isn't happening" and there is nothing that anyone can do except say "be brave" and she is.
I can't write any more of this, its a mental image that i just can't do.
Here is a picture that makes things better.

Comments

[suzy]

Ian, what a wonderful and moving blog. Poor John Suchet, poor Emily, poor all of her family and even poor Jade. Life is short and my God we do not know what is around the corner. All we can do is try to grab those moments of joy and happiness when they come.
xxx

[Ange]

I overheard two people discussing 'Jade' in Asda today. They were complaining about the money she's making, the publicity she is getting, how much Max Clifford is making out of her, whether or not they've made any donations to charity and how others in the public eye who've lost or are losing someone to cancer will look upon what she is doing? They asked my opinion and expected me to join in, and I didn't. Who am I to judge the actions of a dying mother, trying to do everything in her power to secure a decent future for her children?

[Trepid Explorer]

When I'm feeling down and my resistance is low...

I'm going to do the Emily dance...

Because it looks like it works...

(and it looks like fun).

[Ange]

Why hasn't your clock gone forward?? :-)