FORWARD

‘The record~~the written message~~is everything. Press on until you have every bit of evidence that is possible. Never give up. Keep the search alive. While the search lives, the missing person lives. While the search continues, hope continues. As the record is put together, the monument to the missing person grows. If the record is substantial enough, the missing person cannot be lost, ever. Trust the written word.’

These words of Lady Jane Franklin, the wife of the lost Arctic Explorer Sir John Franklin, tell more of what I am trying to accomplish than any I can write.

In July 2000, Morgan Lidle, my wife, was diagnosed with Heart Failure on both sides of her heart. She was not operable. She died June 14, 2001 at age 56. This folder is a collection of essays in the form of emails I sent friends in her last months and the period after her death. Most do not deal directly with her illness, but it is the central character of the ongoing play.

The essays retain their original date at the bottom. Any comments I might make in retropsect are in italics following the date.

******

I am indebted to Sheila Nickerson's Disappearance: A Map, subtitled "A Meditation on Death & Loss in the High Latitudes" for the quote and information on Lady Jane Franklin. The book is one to be read late at night in a quiet room where the reader will have the conditions necessary for reflection.