Professor Lucy Stewart
School of Health, Nursing and Midwifery
University of Paisley
Paisley, Scotland PA1 2BE

20 August 2019

Dear Eleanor,

Yes, of course I remember you. I have a video of you as a very small girl, quacking and flapping your arms in concert with my late husband. The card sits in a digital frame on my mantelpiece, and while I don't play it often, I always smile when I see it.

I deeply regret having lost touch with you, so many years ago. I ask you to forgive me: my dispute with your father was nothing to do with you; I felt that he remarried far too soon after your mother's death, and I am afraid my deep love for your mother cost me years of involvement in your life. We had our disagreements, sometimes quite acrimonious, but I am truly sorry to learn of his death.


(Author's note: it's Tomas's fault. He gave Mia one more, so I had to give Lucy one more. This one is rather darker than the rest of the entries, for which I apologize, but it seems far too likely . . . .

(Lucy would not discuss it with Eleanor (Lucie's "Ellie"), as at the time of this letter Eleanor would be at most 14 years old, but an equally compelling reason why Lucy turned to teaching was her vision: albinism is primarily characterized in all its genetic variations by low vision, requiring corrective and adaptive measures (light- and glare-filtering lenses -- likely polycarbonate, as they can be manufactured in a thin enough profile not to add headaches from the weight of one's eyewear to the problem -- large print text materials, books on tape) that would not be a priority in a world in the midst of an oil shock. As her vision worsened, Lucy would recognize the potential risk to her clients and wisely, if regretfully, remove herself from practice.)

(The Wikipedia entry on the 1918 Flu Epidemic makes fascinating, if unsettling, reading, the lessons regarding restriction of travel and interaction in public spaces holds relevance for modern public health planning in the event of an avian flu pandemic. For a comparable event to the uproar over buying one's way out of National Service that took down the fictional Labour government, readers are referred to the New York Draft Riots and reminded that the UK government has a prior history of ignoring professional advice at the cost of thousands of lives: a desperate government, without ready access to sources of replacement material, might well decide that a few more deaths due to reuse of limited bio-hazard gear constituted an acceptable level of loss.

(It's been quite the ride. Thanks for reading.)