Activist Callwood dies at 82

I will be wholly honest and say that normally I wouldn’t have paid much attention to the passing of someone like Callwood. First of all, I really didn’t know who she was. I’m not one of those revolutionary activist types that keeps on top of these things (though maybe I should be, but I’m probably too selfish for that to ever work out). I would not have recognized the name at all until a few days ago.

I was watching The Hour (damn, when did I really start wanting to watch the CBC? Probably worth delving into another time…), and George was visiting her in her home. She was already close to death, but didn’t seem like it at all. She came across as lady who had seen it all (and she probably had) who still had much wisdom to impart to the world at large, and so still had to live on in order to do so. However, the whole interview felt so unreal. From what I recall, for most of the interview Strombo and June’s discussion revolved around her death. I mean, why shouldn’t it, no? However, there was such a matter-of-fact-ness to the way she was talking about it that it was almost like she had stripped death of any of its power. It’s like she grabbed the reaper by the nuts and told him that he will have no say over the rest of her life.

So, more than anything, I was so struck by her fearlessness. What freedom! Even though I don’t know much about her, that short 10 minute interview told me enough to know that June must have been a truly remarkable woman to be that fearless.

And now, she’s gone.

This is a quote from her interview (borrowed from the Star, borrowed from George…)

“What you get is a life. A baby is a miracle. You open a baby’s fist and they’ll close their hand on your hand and hold on. What they’ve got is a life to live as best as they can. That’s what you get. You don’t need anything else if you’ve got that.”

ETA: Well, it’s a little sad that I’m only learning about her work now, but at least the newscasts are informative about her.