A Room of One's Own: Misha Herwin
Virginia Woolf memorably said that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” both of which I had when I retired from teaching. My pension was reasonable, my office had everything I could possibly want. I loved the view from my window. The way the light fell over the rooves, the stunning sunsets and neighbour’s beech tree that changed with the seasons. The shelves were full of books and photos of my family. There were inspiring pictures cut from magazines on my notice board and the room was the warmest in the house.
In
such an environment one couldn’t help but write and I did. Six books in the
Letty Parker series for 8-12 year olds, five novels, numerous short stories and
a piece of drama for an evening at the Wedgewood museum. There were also a
short stories that were published in various anthologies and workshops prepared
for school visits.
Outside
my room, I did the housework and the laundry. Mike shopped and cooked. He
watched sport. I read and spent time in the garden. When there were important
decisions to be made we made them together.
All
this changed with his diagnosis of dementia. Suddenly I was in charge of
everything, which was scary, challenging and so time consuming. I can still
carve time out for my writing and in our new house I have a spacious room of my
own. What I don’t have is someone to do all the other stuff.
For
that, I have decided, I need a clone. A housekeeper won’t do. She could never
know what we want and need. No, I need another me who would take on the life
stuff and leave me to write and read and day dream my way into all the stories
and books I want to write.
If
she existed, she’d have made the bed, done the shopping, cooked the lunch, doled out
the pills and this blog wouldn’t have been posted quite so late in the day.
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