Before I Say Goodbye; Recollections and Observations from One Woman's Final Year

by Ruth Picardie

Paperback, 1997

Status

Available

Call number

XXII Pic

Collection

XXII. PERSONAL STORIES

Publication

Penguin Books Ltd

Description

When Ruth Picardie died from complications following the misdiagnosis of breast cancer in September 1997, leaving a young husband and two-year-old twins, 1000s mourned who'd never met her. Ruth's column in The Observer recorded the progress of her illness and her feelings about living with terminal cancer. This text brings together these pieces, Ruth's e-mail correspondance with friends, selected letters from readers, and accounts of Ruth's last days by her sister, Justine, and husband Matt.

Media reviews

literaturkritik.de

Ruth Picardies Lebensfreude ist beeindruckend. Zugleich fühlt man sich von ihrer oft provozierenden Ausdrucksweise angegriffen. Sie bricht das Schweigen, das gerade heute Krankheit und Tod umgibt, und wendet sich mit ihren Artikeln und dem noch zu ihren Lebzeiten geplanten Buch an die

Öffentlichkeit. Sicherlich wird dieses Buch, wieder einmal die Diskussion aufkommen lassen, inwiefern hier eine "ungehemmte Zurschaustellung privaten Kummers" stattfindet, was Picardies Mann verneint. In jedem Fall ist Ruth Picardies Vermächtnis eindrucksvoll, und bisweilen anrührend (z.B. in den Abschiedsbriefen an ihre beiden Kinder). Ihr trockener Galgenhumor ist gepaart mit bewundernswerter Tapferkeit, mit der sie das Unausweichliche in seine Schranken weist - mit einem Hohnlachen.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member Janine2011

A heartbreaking but moving story of one women's journey with terminal breast cancer. Complied in series of letters and emails to her friends it traces her moods, feelings and battle with dying. An extrordinary insight into dealing with cancer and coming to terms with death.

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LibraryThing member tealightful

This book was heart-breaking. Not in the outright sad way that you would expect. The pain sneaked up on you like a sunburn. One minute your laughing - truly feeling the warmth Ruth Picardie has for her family and life, the next minute you feel the sting of a tear burning in your eyes.

It's unlike

any memoir I've read. In that, it is not written to you, the reader. It is a series of notes, letters, email and various correspondence between Ruth Picardie and her family/friends during her fatal battle with breast cancer. You can feel the life leaving her, the illness taking over, the breath she cannot catch.

And it breaks your heart.

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