To my dad for not making it back to Birmingham to see him while I was in London doing The Streets.
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
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The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 January 2017 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 209 →I was not great with my mother-in-law, who was a very gentle woman. I thought she would be an uninvited part of my life for ever, but she died early and I wished I had been more open and patient.
I’ve apologised to my son, Thomas, for being absent for quite a lot of his first few years, but, as a working mother and breadwinner, I kind of had to be. I like to think I’ve made up for it.
As a teenager I told my father, “You led us into the camp like sheep to slaughter.” I knew I had hurt him, this man that I loved so much. That’s haunted me all my life.
More from Nicola Walker
View profile →Like you are standing with an army.
Swimming off the north Cornish coast eight years ago. I remember thinking, “Why did they teach you how to inflate your pyjamas in life-saving classes at school, when they could have just told you what to do in a riptide?”
As I get older, I get happier.
My father, because he’s never run away from anything.
Ten years ago I bought a painting. I lived with it for a year before realising I didn’t like it at all. So it’s on my wall, mocking me daily.
Funerals are for the people left behind, so I don’t mind.
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