Deborah Shepard Books
  • Home
  • Books
    • The Writing Life >
      • Reviews & Interviews
    • Giving Yourself to Life
    • Her Life's Work
    • Translucence
    • Between The Lives
    • Reframing Women
    • Tributes
    • Personal Writings >
      • Lockdown Journal
      • Travel Journal
      • Elegy for a friend
      • Christchurch - Post Quakes
      • On a residency
      • Deborah’s Love Letter to the Women’s Bookshop
      • Deborah's Q & A With Unity Books
  • Writing Memoir
    • Defining Memoir
    • The Participatory Model
    • Tips on Writing and Posting a Story
    • The Value of a Writing Class
    • From writing course to book publication
    • Your Writing Space
    • Writing on a Theme >
      • Window
      • Surviving a Crisis
    • Reviews of Memoir
  • Writers' stories
    • Writer's Stories
    • Covid-19 Stories
    • Writing Guidelines
    • From Being Mentored to Book Publication
  • Events
  • About
    • Testimonials
    • Media
  • What People Say
  • Contact

A Response to 'One Year On' by Margo Knightbridge

14/7/2011

 
Margo Knightbridge grew up on a farm in North Auckland, as a member of a large extended family who all loved music, and in particular, singing. Margo has been involved in singing, either in choirs, small ensembles or as a soloist, for most of her life. She works as a librarian. 

I appreciated being able to read your reflection on the year since the Christchurch earthquake. Firstly, I was amazed to read of the article in the Sunday Star Times in which the journalist wrote in such a dismissive way of the experiences of those affected. I had not seen the article in the newspaper, and I can tell you that I was enraged when I read your description of the contents of the article. 

I thought about my sister and her family and all the stresses they have been through and continue to go through - and they live in one of the less affected areas. I thought about the fact that they need to come up here for rest breaks every two or three months just to get away from the shaking. 

I reflected on my husband's elderly cousin, who was pinned under a heavy storage heater on 22nd February, emerged with extensive bruising and a broken foot and spent weeks in hospital recovering. 

I thought about my husband's two nephews and their families and the boys having to relocate to new business premises as their old ones had been destroyed in the quakes. 

I thought about my niece, a student midwife, attending births in Christchurch Hospital while the building swayed and rolled around her. 

I thought about all these things and more, including all the lost and injured animals, and I include myself among the stressed as I obsessively listen to early morning radio news broadcasts to check on what has been happening during the night. 

And I thought about the memorial service that I attended on 22nd Feb 2012, at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Auckland, and during which, at the first sound of the organ playing softly, my at-the-surface emotions took over. I started to weep and could not stop.

    Surviving a Crisis

    This section is dedicated to memoir pieces that look at experiences of surviving a crisis.

    Authors

    All
    Francie Craig
    Margo Knightbridge
    Maureen Sudlow
    Roz Nicol

    RSS Feed

Deborah thanks Rangimarie Kelly and Pikau Digtal for website design and artist Karen Jarvis for her image ‘Writers at the Devonport Library,’ (2023)
Writing Memoir
Defining Memoir
The Participatory Model
Tips on Writing and Posting a Story
​From Writing Course to Book Publication
Your Writing Space
​Writing on a Theme
Reviews of Memoir
Writers Stories
​
Events
​About
Testimonials
What People Say

Media
​Contact
Copyright © 2023 Deborah Shepard
  • Home
  • Books
    • The Writing Life >
      • Reviews & Interviews
    • Giving Yourself to Life
    • Her Life's Work
    • Translucence
    • Between The Lives
    • Reframing Women
    • Tributes
    • Personal Writings >
      • Lockdown Journal
      • Travel Journal
      • Elegy for a friend
      • Christchurch - Post Quakes
      • On a residency
      • Deborah’s Love Letter to the Women’s Bookshop
      • Deborah's Q & A With Unity Books
  • Writing Memoir
    • Defining Memoir
    • The Participatory Model
    • Tips on Writing and Posting a Story
    • The Value of a Writing Class
    • From writing course to book publication
    • Your Writing Space
    • Writing on a Theme >
      • Window
      • Surviving a Crisis
    • Reviews of Memoir
  • Writers' stories
    • Writer's Stories
    • Covid-19 Stories
    • Writing Guidelines
    • From Being Mentored to Book Publication
  • Events
  • About
    • Testimonials
    • Media
  • What People Say
  • Contact