The
children are devastated, but we were greatly helped by the coming
here of Margaret's sister Barbara who came over from England and has
stayed three weeks with us; her presence has been a tremendous help
in a very painful moment.From Paraguay, the Christmas 2007 Newsletter of the Olgiati Family.
D
ear
Friends,
As you probably know this year has finished very badly for us, for we have lost Margaret at the end of November.
Weakened by a chemotherapy she had undergone the week before, she was unable to fight-off an infection which did not respond to antibiotics, and she passed away in her sleep after four days on the 23rd of November, just two weeks before our 23rd. wedding anniversary. She was buried the next day (tropical country) and now rests in this Paraguayan land she loved so much.
The
children are devastated, but we were greatly helped by the coming
here of Margaret's sister Barbara who came over from England and has
stayed three weeks with us; her presence has been a tremendous help
in a very painful moment.
Thomas is now on his way to England where it had already been planned that he would spend five weeks of the summer holidays with Margaret's family. After Margaret died Elizabeth was asked if she wanted to go to England with Thomas; her reply was ""No, Daddy cannot remain all alone by himself, I'll stay with him"" so we will go together to Brazil for the week at the beach which Margaret had already organized for the three of us.
Th
e
building work on the house is almost finished, only the ceramic tiles
of the galleries and the wooden floor of the balcony remain to be
laid; it must be all finished for April 23rd, when Margaret had
planned a house-warming party to coincide with her birthday an our
ten years in this house; but the party will take place in her memory,
with the help of the Association des Dames Françaises, of
which she had been elected Secretary, and of the Union des Français
de l'Etranger.
The rest of us are in good health, the kids look forward to their holidays before they return to school in February, with Thomas entering a technical college and Elizabeth in seventh grade, and we hope we can get used to the huge vacuum left by Margaret"s absence.
May God bless you all.
Renaud, Thomas and Elizabeth.
Asunción, Christmas 2007
As a post scriptum, on the day after Margaret's funeral I was looking through her handbag for a cheque belonging to the British Community Council, and found instead the text in Spanish of an English poem; I don't know where it came from, or why she had it, but it has been a great comfort to me, and I would like to share the original version in English with you:
Death
is nothing at all
I
have only slipped away into the next room
I
am I and you are you
Whatever
we were to each other
That
we are still.
Call
me by my old familiar name
Speak
to me in the easy way you always used
Put
no difference into your tone
Wear
no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
Laugh
as we always laughed
At
the little jokes we always enjoyed together
Play,
smile, think of me, pray for me
Let
my name be ever the household word that it always was
Let
it be spoken without effort
Without
the ghost of a shadow in it
Life
means all that it ever meant
It
is the same as it ever was
There
is absolute unbroken continuity
What
is death but a negligible accident?
Why
should I be out of mind
Because
I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you for an interval
Somewhere very near
Just around the corner
All is well.
Nothing is past; nothing is lost
One brief moment and all will be as it was before
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!
Canon
Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918,
Canon of St Paul's Cathedral