Spreading the Love

Every day or so someone says or sends something to me, which makes me realise our Mission to Lars has ramifications beyond just getting Tom, Will and me pursuing a crazy plan. There are things about having a disabled sibling that many people feel, but rarely get to express in public, as if it were herpes or something - which it isn't, obv. Anyway, I got this email from the writer Clover Stroud this morning, who I've never met, and it deserves a bit of blogoxygen, no question. Thanks Clover. x

Hi Kate

Tiff sent me an invite to your party on the 28^th which I will definitely come to and I clicked through to the link on your blog about mission to Lars. I just wanted to say that I think what you are doing is totally brilliant. I have an older sister who is disabled after she was deprived of oxygen at birth. She is totally vulnerable and manic depressive, but also quite close to normality, but then a million million miles away from it, all at the same time. She lives with three other disabled women and their carers. I read yr blog about the guilt, and worse,  the shocking, shit-feeling ease with which we can sort of ignore a disabled sibling, and it rung very true. And I read yr piece in Style a couple of weeks ago and thought it was brilliant that you and Tiff had the balls to be public and open about it and supportive of disability. Terrible to say it, but balls IS what it takes I think -  lets face it,  magazine style  journalism isn’t usually interested in anything so unglamorous, unstylish as brain damage.  God knows, disability is sad. I feel sad and guilty about my sister all the time, and the endless questions about what her life might have been like are always there, painful and impossible to answer because the truth is so fucking sad. Her tragedy is that she knows she is disabled too. Imagine what that must be like: KNOWING you are mentally handicapped and that you will never do all the stuff like jobs, driving licence, own home, kids, the endless parties and fun of life,  that its easy to take for granted. I feel I have had such a massive  go at life, which has often ended in fuck up, but which has been an amazing ride too (and continues to be of course, so very very much to do still....) and my sister has not, and never will do.

Maybe I’m beginning to sound clichéd, I just wanted to say good on you, respect for yr mission: Space Control sending much luck to Major Tom.

Cloverxx