Unpublished letter to the E.D.P.

Will she have saved enough for the funeral?

     When jumbo jets first took to the skies, I remember a friendly speculation on insurance which was crowned with the assertion ‘One of them is going to crash sometime; the insurance companies have to guess how much must they collect before they have to pay out’. It’s a startling concept- not if but when.
     Apply it to the children walking to school to save the Council money. Perpetual risk must bring eventual damage. If you push enough children onto the roads in bad light, greasy surfaces, no pavements, hurrying drivers, heavy lorries, little heads bowed against the rain, eventually one of those children will die- the first one. There is no ‘if’ about it. The only unknown is what day ‘eventually’ falls on.
      Now Frances Roualle must ask herself how much time has she? A whole winter? Two? Two weeks? Will she have saved enough to pay for the funeral? If not, she can always suggest the grieving family walk to the graveyard and push the little coffin on a handcart.
     As an 8yr old, I remember a classmate being killed. I didn’t see it happen; I only saw the bus with the little coat wedged up the back of the wheel arch, and I remember thinking ‘if that’s where her coat went, where did she finish up?
     When that coat is seen again (not if- when) I hope they take Frances Roualle to look.