The Brightness of the Light

 

This story is based on conversations with someone I have called 'Earle' . He was 93 when we met on a holiday spent in and  around Pompeii and Herculaneum and on the last day we climbed to the top of Mount Vesuvius with him.

 

Earle had first done that in 1944, 72 years earlier . 

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I have tried to evoke the sense not only of what he told us things were like for a young American in Pompeii towards the end of the Second World War, but also to pay tribute to his wide-ranging interests and absolute resilience. However, I am a writer of fiction so perhaps it is as well that he is unlikely to read it.

 

If by any chance he does, I hope he will forgive what I have written and realise just how much of a privilege we felt it to share even one week of his remarkable life. 

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