JH
Childbirth. And the wheel of our camper van coming clean off on the M1.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 February 2018 source ↗
The question
How close have you come to dying?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
View all 209 →I fell asleep in a room that had an oil heater and it filled with carbon monoxide and, if it hadn’t been for my husband, Terry, I would have died.
Martin Sheen
American actor
Making Apocalypse Now. I had a close call with a heart ailment due to anxiety, fear and physical abuse: I was not taking care of myself.
Carlos Acosta
Cuban ballet dancer
In 1989, in Cuba, about to board a plane for Milan, where I was going to school for a year. The visa didn’t arrive in time, so I couldn’t board. The plane crashed and people died.
About five years ago, a half-tonne tree branch fell and missed me by three feet.
More from Julie Hesmondhalgh
View profile →An old camper van that has cost me more in repairs than my house, my wedding and all the holidays I’ve ever been on.
To all those whose fleeting interaction with me has fallen short of what they’d hoped; the unwitting recipients of my occasional grumpiness.
I cleaned for a very posh lady in Knightsbridge who made me handwash her knickers. I’d advertised myself in The Lady as a dog walker, so I’m not sure how I ended up there.
Worrying that I’ve upset people.
Every time I got drunk and out of order. Especially in my teens and 20s.
That the last general election didn’t take place later. We might have got rid of the Tories with a couple more weeks.
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