So Esther Ransen milks this like hell but:
That’ll do Nick, that’ll do.
There were 25,685 of The Righteous Among The Nations. That we know of, that is, and this is definitely an undercount. God forbid that this should ever become necessary again. But thank God that there were and will be, however few.
I don’t believe in a god but I long thought his lengthy life until the announcement yesterday was the best evidence of a higher power rewarding virtue I had come across.
It’s not so easy to spot who would do the right thing. It is, however, extremely easy to see who would be collaborating gleefully in herding people onto cattle wagons heading to death camps.
Tim Newman: sadly very true.
Surely personal initiatives of this nature should be discouraged and everything left to the Courageous State?
Ritchie has not commented on this. I wonder why?
Ashamed that I did not know this gent’s name or heroic actions before today. Thank you for highlighting Tim. I normally only read your outpourings for amusement, but this post made me pause, research/learn and reflect. I am better for it, the world is worse for his loss.
Not quite the way that I would put it myself. At 106, that’s a good innings. So I’m entirely unsure that the world is a worse place for his loss. Although I’m absolutely damn certain that the world is currently a better place for his having been in it previously.
And I very much doubt that anyone, other than direct relatives possibly, will say that about me, or any of the crowd here, when we pop our clogs. But damn, wouldn’t it be a life well lived if they would?
“A life well lived.”
This is not quite on subject, but I was one of about 600 who attended the funeral in St Helens a fortnight ago of an 86-year-old Irish nurse called Kathleen Duffy. She never married and had no relatives in the UK. The 600 odd were there to pay tribute to what the celebrant priest called ” a life well lived”.
Those who played rugby in and around St Helens/Wigan will have known of her being on duty every Saturday evening ready to stitch up our little scratches. And around there the hospital pass is still known as the “Duffy Pass”.