Nicole

“It’s hard to explain the injustice of the United States health care system to Australians, whose taxpayer-funded Medicare covers everyone, a principle accepted by left and right alike. Australians gasp to learn how Americans are driven to bankruptcy by illness, and that lifesaving medications might cost the uninsured tens of thousands of dollars a year. I had become numb to this madness. But that someone could pay almost five grand for a month’s insurance and not have any coverage was a new level of insanity.”
― Geraldine Brooks, Memorial Days

“I have written this because I needed to do it. Part of the treatment for “complicated grief” is to relive the trauma of the death, returning to the moments again and again, striving each time to recall more detail. That’s what I have tried to do.”
― Geraldine Brooks, Memorial Days

“A memorial is like a joyless wedding, one to which the whole world is invited, and of that infinite set of possible guests, you have only a vague idea how many will show up. The imperative to get it right—to do justice to the life—is immense. It is another thing that a grieving person is ill-equipped to do.”
― Geraldine Brooks, Memorial Days

“Do your work. It might not be your best work, but it will be good work, and it will be what saves you.” Deborah had followed that advice and taken her grief back into the field, reporting on the plight of Syrian refugees. I could imagine doing that: subsuming my sadness in the dire hardships of others. What I couldn’t imagine was crawling back to my desk to do the work of imagination.”
― Geraldine Brooks, Memorial Days