It is reported that a retired milliner, Herta Groves, was knocked down and killed by a passing lorry as she left the Wigmore Hall after a concert.
Mrs Groves, who was 96, used to make hats for Her Majesty the Queen.
She reached England in 1938, after Hitler seized power in Vienna.
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I am not sure I understand the headline… How is being run over by a truck a heavenly way to go? But English is not my native language, so I may be missing something here.
Even though English isn’t my native language either, I suspect mostly callous or depraved native anglophones would choose the word ‘heavenly’ to describe being run over and killed by a lorry.
Now had Mrs Graves peacefully slipped away during the concert, ‘heavenly’ would have been a more apt description.
That’s what I thought. A bizarre formulation, to say the least
I wouldn’t mind bidding farewell to this life sitting in the Wigmore Hall listening to Schubert’s Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat major, or during the fifth movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, but to be killed by a lorry in Wigmore Street sounds less than heavenly.
More constructively, perhaps Slipped Disc would consider running a poll of readers’ favourite pieces of music to die to. I suppose I’d have to say Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, but what are the chances?
I thought I had gone to heaven when I heard Brendel play the Gb impromptu at his last London recital.
I cannot comment on this particular incident, but I have seen plenty of reckless driving in the vicinity of the Wigmore after concerts. Where are the traffic wardens (or “marshals”, as Westminster City Council calls them) when you need them?
It was on the night of the semi-finals of the Kathleen Ferrier Competition outside the Wigmore Hall. Unless she walked out into the road without thinking, I really cannot understand how it happened as I know Wigmore Street very well. It is an awful way to die for sure. Not sure where the heavenly thing comes into at all as the turn of phrase is obviously only being read one way on this blog – implying it was a wonderful way to go, which it most certainly wasn’t, but I can’t think Norman meant that … just a strange way to put it when it can be misinterpreted.
It was on the day of the semi-finals of the Kathleen Ferrier Competition outside the Wigmore Hall in broad daylight. Unless she walked out into the road without thinking, I really cannot understand how it happened as I know Wigmore Street very well. It is an awful way to die for sure. Not sure where the heavenly thing comes into at all as the turn of phrase is obviously only being read one way on this blog – implying it was a wonderful way to go, which it most certainly wasn’t, but I can’t think Norman meant that … just a strange way to put it when it can be misinterpreted.
I’ve heard people say after great concerts that if they died in that moment, they’d die happy, so I kind of get what’s being implied in the headline. But to describe being killed by a lorry as heavenly is pretty disgraceful..
This story does not add up. The lady in question was killed in the mid-afternoon last Wednesday. But there are no lunchtime concerts on Wednesdays at the Wigmore Hall. So her death cannot have been metaphorically ‘heavenly’, let alone physically so, poor thing.
But we all clicked, and this is the only thing that really matters …
I think this happened after the Kathleen Ferrier Awards semi-final, which was held at 1.30 p.m. on 27 April.
But the Hall is used privately as well …
Lorries cause a fair number of fatalities in London. This is very sad.