"I'm out of breath just talking, she says. I've never known tiredness ever in my life. Weary. Will I ever get up again? She will, but the question is not entirely rhetorical. I'm having a dreadful death, she says. I'm just dying, every day in pain. This is said in a matter of fact tone, only to be undercut by a rueful prediction: I'll probably live to be 100."
"When she was eight, the man who gave her elocution lessons made her expose herself as he masturbated The grande dame of Irish and British theatre, TV and cinema Fricker was a staple of Coronation Street and Casualty, and won an Oscar for My Left Foot in 1990 is an authority on survival. It is something of a miracle, in fact, that she made it into adulthood, let alone pensionable age."
Brenda Fricker, aged 80, is confined to bed in Dublin, taking 25 pills daily and smoking while surrounded by books and photographs. She experiences constant pain, describes herself as 'dying' and questions whether she will get up again, though she predicts she may live to 100. Her early life included sexual abuse at eight. She achieved major success as a staple of Coronation Street and Casualty and won an Oscar for My Left Foot in 1990. She survived attempts at ending her life and repeatedly rediscovered a hunger for love, joy, and adventure. She urges others to do everything while young.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]