When Dickens stepped in to keep me company
jeffstreeter.substack.com
When Dickens stepped in to keep me company
How reading literature gave me purpose during a time of grief
Dear Reader
Thank you for reading English Republic of Letters! I truly appreciate it.
I’m writing to let you know that I’m honoured and very grateful to have been given the chance to contribute a guest post on one of my favourite Substacks, Create Me Free, by the wonderful
.If you don’t know Kathryn’s work, her fascinating recent posts on Georgia O’Keeffe are a great place to start.
And I hope you will enjoy my essay, which you can find here:
Many thanks
Jeffrey
This resonated deeply for me Jeffrey. Books and the act of reading were close friends when i was caregiving for my father and then my mother on their cancer journeys, and then moving through the grief of their deaths during the pandemic when i was isolated alone in my apartment. I’m an only child so the journey of caregiving and grief has been a very solitary one, but the act of reading was (and still is) such a balm to the soul, and you are right- it does feel like a form of accompaniment during life’s toughest times. Really appreciate all that you express in this post.
I can’t see myself reading all of Dickens. But, coincidentally, I have Louise Gluck’s Poems 1962 - 2012 on my groaning nightstand and have been reading it intermittently over the last several months. Another coincidence: my brother was stuck in Hong Kong for 15 months during the pandemic. We did family Zooms and I think that was the one thing that kept him sane.
This is a lovely story. Your mom sounds like an absolute sweetheart. She raised you well.