Suzie Howie was a showbiz publicist in Australia. She died a few days ago aged 63. Here are some extracts from her last message:
I have had a terrific life and am so grateful for the fun, the excitement and the wonderful people who have been part of it.
Couldn’t have done it without the love of my creative husband, Paul Taylor, and the warmth and love of his family, who have given me so much affection and support – and that includes the first Mrs Taylor, Maggie Pinkney.
My clever and amusing doctors, Gaynor Simmons and Bob Millar, who have guided me through the last seven years of breast cancer and best of all shown me that death is just a part of life. I am so grateful to them, as it has meant that I have genuinely accepted this and taken joy from all my life.
Please note – that after 30 years of media calls, press conferences, before and after drinks and all those opening night parties — enough is enough. There will be NO funeral, and certainly no memorial. I am very happy to just float away when called.
Thank you everyone – and enjoy life. I have.
More here.
Courage is beautiful in its own right isn’t it?
In an idle moment I began to wonder if there wasn’t a correlation between the quality of the life and the need that people need for a good funeral. It feels counterintuitive, but could it be that where lives are hardest, funerals are big affairs? Think of the New Orleans funeral, celebrations because the life that had led up to it had been so tough that death was seen as the best of releases, and compare them those obituaries from Vancouver that you blog about from time to time. Long lives, filled with pleasure and fulfillment that, seemingly, need no memorial. This brave lady too.
I wonder.
I wonder too, Vale. And I suppose it’s a question more and more people are asking, now: do we need a coda?
And a funeral is only one kinda coda…
I wonder….do her friends and family need a funeral. In this particular case the answer well may be ‘no’, but is that always the case? The benefit of a funeral (depending. of course, on your religious views) is to the bereaved. Sometimes they need something. We are creatures of ritual.
If they do, I hope they jolly well have one! She’ll never suspect a thing!
Quite brilliant.