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Dr. Tony Fitchett
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On July 18th, 1996, Marcus
Fitchett, a 26 year old doctor, and Rachael Gloag, a 23 year
old nurse, were killed in a road accident near Lytton, British
Columbia while travelling to the UK.
As Well as Joy is a sequence of poems written
by Marcus' father, Tony Fitchett, during the year following
the accident. The poems explore the search for answers to
the inexplicable, the weight of grief, a father's love and
a family's loss.
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The book was published in 1998
by the Rachael Gloag & Marcus Fitchett Memorial Medical
Education Trust and all proceeds from sales go to the Trust.
It assists students from low-income backgrounds attending
the University of Otago Medical School. The first grants from
the Trust were made in 1999, and in 2002 it distributed $4,000.
As Well as Joy has also proved
helpful to the bereaved, and to those, particularly doctors,
counsellors and clergy, who care for them. So
far over 1500 copies of As Well as Joy have been sold, and
it has just been reprinted for the second time.
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ISBN 0-473-05135-4
Book & cover design by Ana Terry
Front cover sculpture "Journey"
by Michael Deavoll, photograph by Reg Graham.
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Copies are available from
the Mornington Health Centre, from PO Box 7046, Dunedin at
a cost of NZ$24.95 (post free) per copy (payment may be made
by cash, cheque or Visa/Mastercard credit card), and from
bookshops.
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I
have never read a group of poems so heartfelt, rending,
shattering.
These are extraordinary outpourings of love and grief and
compassion…
I can't recall having read anything more intensely personal.
Brian Turner, Poet, Dunedin.
Once
in a while (and not often enough) I come across a book of
which I can truthfully say
"This ought to be on everyone's bookshelf". Here
is such a book…
Ken Booth, in Anglican Action.
If
you have ever wondered … whether you are achieving anything
by visiting the bereaved, read this.
Keith Murray, in New Zealand Medical Journal.
A review of the book can be found at
www.ocbooks.co.nz/Reviews/Fitchett.html
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