For a while now, I have been trying to start some sort of weighty writing project about Lyn. As a writer I think it’s more or less my duty to pay tribute to the most incredible person I know I’ll ever meet. I simply feel the need to sum her up in prose. Six years after her passing, I also feel it is time to start such a project. The thing is, I seem to keep hitting walls.

I really want to do this properly: I respected L enough to know that she deserves a proper, well researched piece of text. However,  that raises the question, where to begin? The truth is, I don’t that much about her early life. I heard a few fragmentory stories, but I have no real substantial, reliable sources. I haven’t been able to get in touch with her brother Paul. I would really like to explore how Lyn came to be who she was, but to do that the academic in me is crying out that I need far more information than I have.

Then there’s the question of how to structure such a text. A straightforward biography would seem insufficient; but to go a step further and explore ideas around disability and gender would mean straying into notions of psychology, politics or both. To do so would seem to me to do a disservice to Lyn, who was never that concerned with such things. Above all, I think I need to convey what an amazing person Lyn was, and how much she meant to me.

I am thus confronted by the question of how to balance such a text: how do I even begin to sum up the most incredible, intriguing person I will ever meet in simple prose? To tell the truth this question has been frustrating me for a while. Lyn was an awesome person, and deserves something truly awesome written about her. The thing is, as I trundle every day around the world’s greatest city, thinking about the amazing times we shared, as well as the incredible debt I owe her for the life I now lead, I’m not sure I can do it.