Day 90 of the End to End in 2019 included the Devil’s Staircase on the WHW. It certainly is a devil of a climb, especially in hot weather, which was the only way I knew it given it was a sunny day. This would take me to the highest point on the WHW and on the whole LEJOG.
People talk about this staircase, but of course it’s not as bad as all that providing you take things gently. And of course, it’s not a staircase. I can confirm that I didn’t meet Thora Hird on a stair lift going up, or Alan Bennett anxiously waiting for her at the top.
I did see two playful ravens, who I called Caw and Grunt, for the sounds they made as they soared and tumbled together in the sky. Of course, what goes up must come down, so having made it to the top, I took the gentler path down to Kinlochleven meeting Bob on the way, for a well earned ice cream at the National Ice Climbing Centre, at the end.
Lots of things go up. At the moment COVID19 figures continue upwards, both the rate of infection and the death rate. I’m not really a numbers person. But many tragic events are known by numbers: 7/7, the 96, the 72. These numbers are tattooed on our lives but each number represents a much bigger thing: loved persons lost, grief and sorrow, mental and physical health challenges, lives changed forever. So much that numbers cannot contain. It makes me sad that we hear so little about those lost to COVID19.
(photo: a memorial on the WHW)
As one who has visited the CWGC cemeteries in Europe and Turkey, I’m used to seeing huge numbers of people remembered. Thiepval is not my favourite monument, standing as it does in the Somme landscape. But I’ll never forget hearing the last post played there by one of our students in a hail storm. The Menin Gate is set in the city of Ypres and the whole place has a very different feel. Although the last post ceremony itself has become a much greater magnet to visitors, I cannot criticise that. We must remember.
(photo: A quilt I am making to remember the 72 people who died in the Grenfell Tower Fire)
How will we remember COVID19? Well I’ll have a lot of quilts and a lot of words, whatever else happens. As for the answer, it’s a hard thing to decide with numbers still going up. One community in Wythenshawe, Manchester, is creating a COVID19 memorial garden. Each one remembered. We all have to eat.
From the remembered gospel: Jesus said ‘Do this to remember me’.
Bread breaker, eating and drinking are so everyday, but you urge us to remember:
To remember you, companion in life and death.
As I do that now, I remember other companions,
Bread takers, both the living and the dead:
Breathe on us that we may be healed,
Hold our memories that we may be set free.
JAL 14.07.2020 in Longdendale.