Christmas News 2009

The year started on a high note. The last volume of Market Risk Analysis was published, at last.  I was very happy that so many friends, students and colleagues could attend the launch party in February. Even my PhD supervisor and mentor, Walter Ledermann (below) managed to come, and of course our old colleagues from Sussex and my PhD students were all delighted to meet him.

The last time I saw Walter was in April. He seemed well, remarking that his Doctor recently told him he would live to be 100! But that was not so. He died on May 22nd. Here is his obituary. His wife Rushi died soon after him, on 15th June.

However, soon after this my father became very ill, with a suspected cancer associated with his ongoing Padgett’s Disease, as so I began to care for him at our home in Purley. It was not easy to witness his digestive system breaking down, and it seemed inevitable that he would have a slow death, not from cancer but through starvation and dehydration. Here is a photo of Dad in July 2008

Whilst my father was with us in Purley, my mother was alone, except for her carer who came in daily. The week after Walter died Mum was rushed into the Royal Sussex hospital in Brighton, seriously ill. After 48 hours of waiting in Accident and Emergency with no diagnosis, I could see that she was fading, so I called my sisters Liz and Kate and their families to come to the hospital. Here is a picture of me with Liz (middle) and Kate (right), taken last Christmas.

By the time all the family had assembled at the Royal Sussex, Liz and her husband Rob (both doctors) had raised hell and managed to secure an emergency operation. The surgeon was absolutely marvellous. Old scar tissue had wrecked Mum’s abdomen, but the surgeon managed to detach all the necessary, and that night we celebrated that the operation was a success. However, she was taken out of intensive case too soon, and she died on 3rd June. Here is a photo of her on her 82nd birthday, only a few weeks before she died. And here is a photomontage of her life.

Liz and Rob organized an ambulance to take my father to Mum’s funeral in Brighton. On the return journey he went into a coma, and he never fully regained consciousness. On 13th June, Kate, I and Liz were with him, and he passed away soon after we started to sing his favourite Welsh song, Myfanwy. As his body slowly closed down we played an incredibly beautiful Ave Maria by Caccini.

My father was an extraordinary man. Here is a brief history of his life and above is a photo of him, taken at the Labour Party Conference which he helped to organise in Brighton a few years before he died.

In July Jacques and I spoke at the Quant Congress in New York, and we took the opportunity to visit my cousin Jennifer and her family in New Jersey, pictured below. Jennifer was very close to my father, and although they had not seen each other for several years, he maintained contact with her and with all his Welsh relatives through emails and photographs.

Then Jacques and I took a 3-week holiday in France, during which we visited old friends of Jacques in the Auvergne and did the Tour du Monte Blanc. It was a delight to have our longest-ever holiday together, just us two, and the walking helped me to cope with the deaths of my Parents, and Walter.

In September, Boris graduated from Amsterdam University, with an MSc in Quantitative Risk Management. Now he’s planning a year of internships, hoping to focus on portfolio optimization. Helen started her GCSE studies at Royal Russell School, which has boys as well as and girls, an easy going attitude and a remarkable head – so it is really very different from her previous school. Both Boris and Helen are doing very well indeed, I am happy to report! Here is a photo taken at our house on Christmas day 2008. Boris is the tall one at the back and Helen is in the stripes, on the right.

Wishing you all a happy Christmas and a peaceful and productive new year,

Carol

December 2009