A night no longer passes where I do not think of death. Sitting in the uncomfortable padded chair by the window or propped up in bed and staring vacantly at light night infomercials, my mind wanders to topic like a moth to flame. I’m not a morbid person by nature, but surrounded with death and illness, I can’t help thinking dark thoughts. I will be 98 in June and I’ve spent the last seven years in a state run nursing home where death and dementia are an ever present fact of life. Every couple of days, it seems, someone I play cards or checkers with falls by the way. At night, ghostly moans and mad screaming drift through the long,…

When the Wind Blows. That was a title I hadn’t heard in a long time. It was just obviously a British animated film based on a graphic novel by Raymond Briggs. You know, the guy who did The Snowman? It centered around an elderly couple then one day, word came out that war would break out in three days. The graphic novel was written around the height of the Cold War. The threat of nuclear war was as high as it is now. I’ve always had morbid affection for dark animated films. Watership Down; The Plague Dogs; Felidae, you name it. When the Wind Blows fit snuggly in that bubble. Having watched it religiously on YouTube, the film was ultimately removed most likely because of it…