I am aware, sadly that people die at all ages. Two of my friends – brilliant women, full of hope for their futures – died, both of them at 42. I never forget them. I have known other people since who have lost mothers, sisters or friends at tragically young ages.
That said, it remains true that in general men and women both get old or oldish and then die. It is also true in a general way that if you look around, you find more widows than widowers – because it has been customary for women to marry men older than themselves.
None of the above justifies what I have come to call The Ubiquitous Plot Motif, in which we find, usually in otherwise thoughtful, meaningful TV dramas – that someone has just lost their mother. Aged fathers are incredibly common in film, theatre and television. I was dismayed (am dismayed every time) to realise that the Sean Bean character in Marrrage, BBC 1, had just lost his mother. From what I saw yesterday, the Nicola Walker character herself had an ageing father. So far no hint as to whether her mother is dead too. Am I the only person who notices a geriatric gender imbalance in the world of dramas?
Meanwhile I am preparing the rehearsal script of Candlesticks, and following curiously the progress of my short story collection, Tell it Not – available, print on demand from Amazon and Waterstones in the UK, Barnes & Noble in the USA. Not sure how to make an actual link, so I say to people, and forgive me for adding it here: please just google Deborah Freeman, Tell it Not, 17 Stories.
Here is the Candlesticks link:
www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk/whatson/Candlesticks
