I’m convinced heartache almost killed me a few years ago.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 February 2017 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.
I’m convinced heartache almost killed me a few years ago.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 February 2017 source ↗
Catching Covid. I don’t think any of us know what we’re messing with still to this day.
When I had cancer. I was having a shave and thought: “Are you meant to have a big hard lump on one side of your neck?”
In 2012 I stared into the eyes of someone who had just stabbed a man in the neck on the street. I was trying to help the victim; for a very long three or four seconds, I thought he was going to come for me next.
Climbing in Tibet, surfing in Australia and a moment ago by a courgette cutter as I dithered over one of these questions.
Right now. Ask me again when my children are grown, and I’ll sob, “When they loved me more than that woman/man they’ve shacked up with.”
A miniature pet elephant, one that is no bigger than a guinea pig.
Life modelling for a woman who made me recite Shakespeare as I posed. I had a hangover, and it was all a bit much.
Utterly relentless warmth and peace.
A walk-on part for my mum in Les Misérables. It was in a charity auction. She always dreamed of being in a West End show.
Teachers who recognise that each child is different.
Ram Dass, Vanessa Redgrave, Ed Harris, Bear Grylls, Simone Biles, Bernadine Evaristo
Search the directory for somebody in particular.