Something Thoughtful

 Nicholas Reid reflects in essay form on general matters and ideas related to literature, history, popular culture and the arts, or just life in general. You are free to agree or disagree with him.

                                              HORRIBLE COINCIDENCE 

                                                Monica in cheerful mood

In real life there are often dreadful coincidences. About three weeks before I am writing this, I started to read my way through Jacqueline Leckie’s excellent book Old Black Cloud, which deals with the history of mental depression in New Zealand and how it has been treated. But I had to set the book aside because two weeks ago, the horrible coincidence happened. Our youngest child, Monica Marguerite, was overwhelmed with depression and took her own life by drowning. Monica was very bipolar (manic-depression is the older term) and her moods could be extreme, bouncing between deep despondency and joyful happiness. Yet whatever the mood, she would present herself as happy, as enjoying life. Monica was 26. She did spend four years at Wellington’s School of Dramatic Arts and aspired to be an actress. She was capable of presenting her warm, wide smile no matter what she was actually feeling. Gabrielle, my wife, says her smile could light up a room. It could. Of course there is so much more I could write about Monica and the families who loved her – us and her fiancés family – but it is hard for me to say more here. We loved her. We miss her. We are devastated.

 

                                                            Monica with mother