As the Covid-19 crisis took
an ever firmer grip in mid-March, I found myself at Mass at St Cuthbert’s
Church, Withington, South Manchester for what would prove to be the last visit
for a long time. Numbers were already depleted from the previous weekend and I
mentioned to the parish priest the need to identify the potentially isolated
and vulnerable. We put together a support group and I stuck letters in thirty
to forty letterboxes.
Very soon after a couple of
days , an email from an eighty-seven year old. Donal (not his real name),
needed some Friar’s Balsam and some throat lozenges for a ‘rusty cough’
(mercifully not an overture to you-know-what).
‘Oh, and another thing,’ he added, ‘the libraries are closed and I’m out
of reading material. Any chance you could find one or two of those “talking
books” on CD?’ I scoured my CD collection. Just when I was losing hope, there
it was; Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories in a two-disc boxed set. I dropped
off the medical supplies and the two CDs by one of the UK’s most beloved
national treasures. From a safe distance in the road, I called Donal on the
phone and he appeared at his door. ‘Do you want to come in for a tea?’ he piped
up. I explained the necessity of social distancing and he looked more than a
tad crestfallen. But ten minutes face to face with me standing in the middle of
the road was better than nothing.
Next day, another email.
‘Thanks
again for getting me those items from the chemist but I cannot possibly allow
you to spend £8.00 on my behalf. One way is for me to send you a cheque but I
will need your address.’
He went on. ‘On
another matter I have been on the computer and I find out you are quite a
famous person. Would it be possible for you to get me a copy of your book the
cost of which I could include with the £8.00 I owe you?’ He was referring to Queer and Catholic, published by DLT in September 2017. Would this
be a bit ‘racy’ for an eighty-seven year old, I pondered? He was clearly
curious. ‘You may not be aware but I myself
have never married and during my life, especially at my workplace, I was often
accused of “not being natural” as they used to say.’
Anyhow, the
next day I popped a signed copy through Donal’s letter box. Twenty-four hours
passed by. Another email.
‘Lovely
surprise getting the book and I have started to read it and have been really
engrossed with details of your early life. It reminds me of my own experiences
during puberty, not knowing what was happening to me. My parents were not the
type to educate me on these matters and trying to learn from my mates was
really frightening. As for being taught about sex at school that was non-existent.
As I say to people, the nearest the school taught me about sex was, The Sermon
on the Mount.’
I’m
a bit wary of all the current ‘silver lining’ talk about the upsides of this
current pandemic. It’s probably scant comfort to you if you think you may never
work again, or you’re a vulnerable woman trapped inside your tiny flat with
your abusive oppressor that blackbirds can be heard singing again or that
pollution levels over cities in China have been radically cut back. But the
truth is, this crisis has led to a strange and wonderful connection with Donal:
a man I have probably passed by dozens of times at Mass and whose name I never
even knew.
‘Thanks
again Mark for keeping in touch and I look forward to the day, sometime soon I
hope, when we can meet up for maybe a meal and chat,’ he signed off yesterday.
That
will be a great pleasure to look forward to.
***
Each day, we will post a
short article by one of Darton, Longman and Todd’s amazing authors, offering a
personal reflection on our current situation in life. Sometimes this will be
written with reference to one of their books, and sometimes about how they are
living in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus and our current world situation.
We hope it will give you a taste of the depth and diversity of DLT’s list –
books for heart, mind and soul that aim to meet the needs and interests of all.
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