Tag Archives: death and dying

A Bombed Cathedral, My Lost Child

By Robin Bates | Published: April 29, 2023

A bombed cathedral and a George Herbert hymn come to mind as I think of my eldest son, who died 23 years ago today.

By Robin Bates | Published: April 9, 2023

As I read Proust’s “Swann’s Way,” I imagined what it must have meant to a friend, who read it when he was dying.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 9, 2023

A dying friend decided to read, in his last months, Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time.” As I read it, I’m beginning to understand why.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 5, 2023

In which I explore why O’Farrell’s “Hamnet” opened up wellsprings of grief I didn’t realize were there.

By Robin Bates | Published: February 19, 2023

Imagining my great-grandmother as heroines in a Gaskell novel brings both her and the novels to life.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 20, 2022

My remarks and a Stevenson poem at an occasion remembering my mother.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 18, 2022

At my mother’s memorial service Saturday we will hear the same Prévert song we heard at my father’s.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 17, 2022

Going through my mother’s possessions is like a trip into Krook’s Rag and Bone shop in “Bleak House.”

By Robin Bates | Published: August 4, 2022

After unexpectedly dreaming about a son who died 22 years ago, I thought of Milton’s poem about a similar dream, this one involving his wife.