Tag Archives: loss

Music and Poetry United in Megan Young’s Compositions

Merrilyn Thomas Posted on by

I had never heard the word Sprechensang until I read one of the poems by Megan Young. It means, apparently, something between singing and speaking, spoken singing. It doesn’t feature even in a large dictionary. So how did Megan know this when she was only 15 years old. It is just one of the many questions I ask myself about Megan. My daughter was an equine veterinary surgeon. She died of cancer, aged 32. Her understanding of the connection between the physical and the spiritual world is present in her poetry much of which has been published in the book Wordsmith: The Gift of a Soul. …

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April Bluebell

Merrilyn Thomas Posted on by

Megan wrote an evocative poem about the arrival of spring bluebells in Kentish woodlands. It is one of my favourite poems. So simple, so observant, and – as was so often the case with Megan’s poetry – hinting at a spiritual awareness. It was written only a few months before the symptoms of her cancer began to be felt. This and other poems are published in the memoir I created following her death from cancer of unknown primary (CUP). She was 32. Wordsmith: The Gift of a Soul is a celebration of Megan’s life.

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Death Sentence: Do We Lose a Battle When We Die?

Merrilyn Thomas Posted on by

For many people cancer is a death sentence. Maybe this is why a warlike vocabulary has grown up around the disease. We use phrases such as ‘fighting the battle’. But not everyone feels comfortable with such imagery. My daughter Megan was one who did not. It’s not a war, she wrote shortly before her death from cancer at the age of 32. Similar thoughts were expressed by a man facing death in very different circumstances. Michael Lambrix was a prisoner on Death Row in the USA. He was executed in October 2017. ‘I suppose it’s really not that different from the resolve most cancer patients feel when they too are counting down their last days – especially those who have suffered for so long under that threat of death, and when that final countdown does come, there’s almost a sense of relief that the journey may finally come to an end and the suffering will finally pass, ‘ he wrote.

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A Poem Becomes a Prayer

Merrilyn Thomas Posted on by

Giving Comfort and Inspiration to Others Megan’s poetry has struck a chord with so many people over the past 18 months since I published her poems in Wordsmith: The Gift of a Soul. Some people contact me to tell me so and I take great pleasure from knowing that Megan’s poetry is helping and pleasing others. Sometimes it brings comfort. Sometimes it is inspiration. Sometimes it is sheer pleasure in the beauty of her words. But there must be many others out there who I do not know about who have been affected by reading Megan’s poetry. One such that … Read more …

Cancer of Unknown Primary (CUP) Awareness Week

Merrilyn Thomas Posted on by

Cancer of Unknown Primary – Megan’s Story The Nightmare of the Hidden Cancer My energetic, fit and healthy daughter Megan was diagnosed with abdominal cancer almost exactly five years ago. She died four months later, aged 32. We have never known what type of cancer she suffered from. Was it ovarian, pancreatic, stomach, liver …. no-one could say. Numerous tests were conducted, scans carried out, consultations held. But the site of the primary tumour which had caused my daughter to become ill so quickly and so devastatingly was never found. The cancer cells riddling her abdomen were secondary. During those … Read more …

Lunar Speculation

Merrilyn Thomas Posted on by

A poem which speaks of love Today is my daughter Megan‘s tenth wedding anniversary. She and Toby were married for just over four years. Megan died of an unknown form of cancer, known as Cancer of Unknown Primary (CUP), in January 2010. In this poem, which she wrote many years ago, she speaks of love. Lunar Speculation Where there is a crowd There are familiar strangers Acquaintances, smothered by their own ambiguity. Anything they say can still wash over me. The abyss, the sea and suddenly A flight to plains of green. For you are the light in the darkness … Read more …

Remembering

Merrilyn Thomas Posted on by

The significance of remembering those who have died This has been a summer of remembering. As a nation, we have been remembering the young men who lost their lives in the First World War. We have come together to do this. But it is what we, as individuals, do all the time for those we love who have died. We remember them, create memorials for them, simply talk about them. And in this way, they live on. I have often wondered over the past four and a half years since my daughter Megan died about the extent to which our … Read more …

Hills Road Sixth Form College Student Wins Megan Young Poetry Prize

Merrilyn Thomas Posted on by

It is almost a year since the publication of Wordsmith: The Gift of a Soul. This precious memoir is a tribute to the amazing talents of my daughter Megan Young. As she herself wrote: ‘I am a scientist, an artist, a Wordsmith’. She grew up to become an equine veterinary surgeon. But she was born a poet and wrote poetry almost from the moment she could form the letters. It is her work that has given birth to this book and also to the poetry competition, The Megan Young Poetry Prize, which was awarded for the first time earlier this … Read more …

The Death of a Child: A Perpetual Grief

Merrilyn Thomas Posted on by

Time stands still for a parent when a child dies. However much life moves on, as it inevitably does, there is a part of that parent which stops, and remains stopped, at that time when the child died. The way in which life – time – is measured alters. Without conscious thought, my memories are slotted into two different boxes – when Megan was alive and after she had died. These thoughts were reawakened recently when I read a most heartfelt and moving letter in a national newspaper from a woman whose young daughter had died more than 20 years … Read more …

A Celebration of Poetry

Merrilyn Thomas Posted on by

Just over a month ago, five young poets took part in the final of the Megan Young Poetry Prize. At an evening called A Celebration of Poetry, they read their contributions and the winner was announced by the former poet laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, who also presented the award. The event had been organised by the Stephen Perse Foundation school in Cambridge (formerly known as The Perse School for Girls). This was the school attended by my daughter Megan in the 1990s. Just before Christmas I had sent a copy of Wordsmith: The Gift of a Soul, to the school. … Read more …