Treading gently in York yesterday in visiting (in the Minster) the first display of the Yorkshire Speak Their Name Suicide Memorial Quilt, before stepping across to the neighbouring St Michael-le-Belfry Church in which my late wife’s first wedding took place (a marriage ended by her first husband’s suicide), not quite knowing how to navigate the emotions involved, carrying with me the friendship of one of the Quilt’s principal instigators (whose daughter’s funeral I took after her suicide and who is commemorated on the Quilt) and the love for my adult step-children (with whom I’ve not had the sorts of conversations being replayed on a screen in the Minster’s Chapter House), and noticing on the way that the word ‘suicide’ (which I had been taught to avoid in favour of the phrase ‘took their own lives’) has been reclaimed. The Quilt comes down today but moves to Ripon Cathedral after Christmas (28 December to 30 January) and will reach Haworth Parish Church for a few days in August. And prominent on the Minster’s West Front is a fresh statue of the late Queen, which has been visited by the new King the previous day, in advance of which my friend had warned me off trying to visit then.
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