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Bettina Moore, my mother, died in a psychiatric unit on 15 December 1984, three days before her 65th birthday.
As I say on www.mentalmagazine.co.uk the website went online on 18 December 2000 as a tribute to my mother, to whom the site is dedicated.
The site is still being developed and as yet there is no "page" set up for my mother, where I want to tell her story and publish some of her poems and stories.
My mother loved to enjoy herself and particularly liked the Opera. She had ambition as a writer and wrote well but did not achieve the fame she wanted. I'm sure she would be glad, even posthumously, to have that fame. I also know that she would be very happy to know she was being remembered and that her story would be helping other people.
Many of my mother's poems were upbeat and witty, but the the gloomy side of her personality often came to the fore after she had a breakdown in 1980, and she was in and out of mental units until her death in 1984. My favourite, and the one that was read at her funeral, is this -
IRREFUTABLE TRUTH
Life will go on
When I am gone
Laid coldly
In the ground.
Depression's deep
I cannot plumb
The depth
of my despair
Tho' all's set fair
My life blood's
On the wane
My youth
Can never come
Again.
Whatever joy
Or pain
Success
Or gain
Come now
I can't transcend
The sorrow
After chances missed
Of pain evoked
Of kindness
Left undone
When I was young.
Pray God
When I pass on
It's not
The end
Of me.
Bettina Moore, circa 1982
posted by Rosemary
"Campaigning for good health & social care...it's for everyone"
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