Nuala O’Faolain: The Lucky One in the Family

The National Post links an interview with the late Nuala O’Faolain in which she wrenchingly discusses cancer and death:

In my time, which has mostly been the 20th Century, people have died horribly, billions of people have died horribly. When I think of people dying in Auschwitz or dying in Darfur, or dying of starvation or being raped in the eastern Congo, or dying like that, I think, look how comfortably I’m dying. I have friends and family. I’m in this wonderful country. I have money. There’s nothing much wrong with me except dying … you know what I mean? When I think of how privileged I am. I had two brothers who died of drink, and they died miserably and underprivilegedly, and here I am, as usual, the lucky one in the family.

The New York Times remembers Nuala O’Faolain here.