{"id":58,"date":"2007-01-19T15:26:58","date_gmt":"2007-01-19T14:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/penninepens.co.uk\/usc\/?p=58"},"modified":"2007-01-19T15:26:58","modified_gmt":"2007-01-19T14:26:58","slug":"the-waiting-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/?p=58","title":{"rendered":"The Waiting Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

I heard a very inspiring play on Radio 4 on Tuesday afternoon. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Waiting Room\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by the writer Julia Darling who died from metatastic breast cancer last year. Much of what she wrote corresponded uncannily to my own feelings and situation. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been recommending that people should listen to it on the Radio 4 listen again facility but haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet succeeded in getting anyone to do so. (Click here to listen<\/a> – but only until 23 Jan as the BBC just allow us to listen for 7 days)<\/p>\n

Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of her poems I wish I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d written. I am particularly taken by the lines: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How are you?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in\/an underlined voice.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I also dislike being talked to in that underlined voice.<\/p>\n

How To Behave With The Ill<\/b><\/p>\n

Approach us assertively, try not to
\ncringe or sidle, it makes us fearful.
\nRather walk straight up and smile.
\nDo not touch us unless invited,
\nparticularly don’t squeeze upper arms,
\nor try to hold our hands. Keep your head erect.
\nDon’t bend down, or lower your voice.
\nSpeak evenly. Don’t say
\n‘How are you?’ in an underlined voice.
\nDon’t say, I heard that you were very ill.
\nThis makes the poorly paranoid.
\nBe direct, say ‘How’s your cancer?’
\nTry not to say how well we look.
\ncompared to when you met in Safeway’s.
\nPlease don’t cry, or get emotional,
\nand say how dreadful it all is.
\nAlso (and this is hard I know)
\ntry not to ignore the ill, or to scurry
\npast, muttering about a bus, the bank.
\nRemember that this day might be your last
\nand that it is a miracle that any of us
\nstands up, breathes, behaves at all.<\/p>\n

Julia Darling’s website<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I heard a very inspiring play on Radio 4 on Tuesday afternoon. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Waiting Room\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by the writer Julia Darling who died from metatastic breast cancer last year. Much of what she wrote corresponded uncannily to my own feelings and situation. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been recommending that people should listen to it on the Radio 4 listen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}