ELDON SWALLOW

A person of deep import died unrecognised

Once we are dead, we are only MEMORY. Without memory we do not exist at all. That is all there is.

In that sense I would like to honour the memory of a life long friend, MENTOR in my ‘early days’ and COLLABORATOR by the name of ELDON SWALLOW. The most curious of persons I have ever met…..our paths initially (without intention) constantly crossed. ELDON was a person of IMMENSE INTELLECT and I often felt as if I had my own private Laurens van der Post. He read extensively and was NEVER without a book and he introduced me to an array of all the top authors Maugham; Laurence; Lessing (a favourite of his); Poe; du Maurier; Blake; Orwell; Eliot; Lee; Hemingway';Fitzgerald; Salinger; Faulkner; Burroughs; Kerouac: etc etc PLUS a host of film directors: Buñuel ; Godard; Herzog; Truffaut; Bergman; etc etc

I am sure you get the drift.

Eldon wrote poetry and a few short ‘essays’ but was a very ‘reluctant’ creator.

Just post graduating as an English Educator, his father died (his parents divorced when he was a child and was very much the soccer ball of the relationship) and left him a huge amount of money. He hence never took up his assigned post and travelled Europe extensively the following 20 odd years finally settling in Durban, our home town. In 1986 Eldon began to visit me regularly every wednesday morning where we would discuss and dissect the apartheid political scenario and discuss everything in between and beyond. During this time I painted two portraits of him.

He was always rake thin and there was many a time where he looked like he was anorexic. However he always responded with the fact that he had a healthy appetite and was quite fine.

In 1997 Eldon collaborated with me on my 5th play THE COME-UPPANCE OF PUNCH introducing the character of NEMESIS with a pro and epilogue. I was deeply honoured and the words of NEMESIS constantly come to mind as their relevance in what is currently happening was all encapsuled in his poem/prose.

In 2010 or thereabout Eldon collaborated with Miles Warrington on an Opera based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale: The Snow Queen which he adapted into a specific South African context of forgiveness and redemption. He wrote the LIBRETTO and Miles created the score. Despite numerous efforts they failed to get funding or to ignite the opera world in South Africa for a staging.

In 2012 ELDON was on his death bed with TB. He was rushed off to IC by his live in partner Chris Bowman and after numerous tests (no cancer/diabetes etc) it was concluded that he had TB. He ended up with a collapsed lung.

This made him somewhat bitter, as he told me that he felt he had had TB all of his adult life: it just went undiagnosed. He was often ‘exhausted’ and would cancel arrangements (frustratingly) at the last minute.

Eldon had very little time for anything fake.

Eldon died 2020. His ‘live in’ partner gave no details/cause of death. I had not seen him (the longest gap ever) for at least 3 years prior to his parting. No phone calls either. Due to the cbullshit I was forbidden to attend the funeral which made me quite angry….so I refused to attend the wake!! I mean REALLY??? A life long friend and I am barred from his funeral.

((UPDATE: I bumped into Chris in Hillcrest four days ago. Chris had just had his car stolen from the premises of SPCA, KLOOF where he was a regular voluntary worker. He told me Eldon died of a heart attack (I honestly thought they would have claimed it was the cbullshit). He did not leave a will and all his possessions and finances went to his half brother. I, of course, did not exist.

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