Skip to main content
Alpha's father died this afternoon. Very sudden and totally unexpected.

A huge loss for his family, who loved him dearly, and for all those who had the good fortune to have known him. He was a remarkable man in so many ways... a formidable intellect, a raconteur who could liven up the dullest of gatherings, a kind heart, a husband of over 40 years, father to five children and grandfather to six... he was a powerful presence who will never be forgotten.

Rest in peace, Paul. You will be greatly missed.

Comments

divrchk said…
You have my deepest sympathies. I can't even imagine. My thoughts and prayers are with you and yours.
Manhattan Mama said…
Our hearts and love are with you all.
Kate B. said…
Thank you so much.

You know, the worst thing is seeing the man you love in so much emotional pain. And the annoyance is that all those words of reassurance you want to say come out sounding like the worst kind of cliches. I wish I could take some of Alpha's pain and carry it for him, but I can't.

In some ways it's harder to deal with than when my grandma died last year. Because, if this makes any sense, that was my pain... for me to deal with and work through. All I can do now is watch and try to help Alpha through this but in truth I can't really help much, except by loving him.
Anonymous said…
That's enough - you are his rock.

Popular posts from this blog

Apologies for being incommunicado this week and hope none of you out there are too distraught not to be receiving the usual almost-daily MotV missives. The reason for the silence is that I'm up to my neck, metaphorically-speaking, in research papers for my first grad course assessment. This experience has made me realise how rigorously un-academic I am in my thinking. It has also illuminated how reliant I am on red wine in order to get through endless evenings typing furiously on my laptop, not to mention the fueling of increasingly colorful curses that I feel obliged to aim at the University's online library system which consistently refuses to spit out any of the journals I'm desperate for (I refuse to believe this is 100% due to my technical incompetence...) Oh well, if this is the price one has to pay in order to realize a long-cherished dream then it's not all that bad... No one ever said a mid-life career change would be easy. Wish me luck!

Environment

Being an expat, a favorite topic of conversation is 'where I/you want to go next?' or 'When do you plan to go home?' It's a good question. I'm not sure I want to stay in Dubai for ever, but I'm also not sure about how long I want to be here for or where else I would like to live. For almost the first time ever, I have no fixed plans apart from keeping my eyes and mind open to interesting opportunities. And as to going 'home', I have no idea where that is. Constantly moving around as a child left me with the feeling that 'home' is wherever I am right now, so in effect 'home' could be anywhere. The longest I've ever lived in one fixed place was 18 years in London, on and off, but that doesn't feel like 'home' either - I love going back to see family and friends, and it's a great place to shop, but that's about it. I have a great love for California, which is where my extended family is from (and where most of the