The story of the nephew is terribly tragic and heartbreaking....but the way Liz uses it in her column makes very uncomfortable reading. Does she have her sister's permission to reveal such personal details about her and her grieving family, I wonder? Coming so soon after yet another ultra-intrusive description of her ailing mother's plight, the details about the nephew's illness just seem horribly inappropriate and disrespectful in print. A devastating tragedy like this shouldn't be described in a column by someone on the other side of the world.
....And after starting the Diary with "And so my nephew died", was it really necessary to press the pause button on this for a moment and launch straight into a couple of paragraphs about her holiday with the FRS?
There's also an interesting comment on the DM page about the weirdly detached way she writes about her own family; the poster points out that it sounds almost as if it's being written by someone completely unconnected with the family (the nephew's mother is described as "the most beautiful of all HER sisters..." ...why not "all MY sisters?" Reminded me of when her mother told her "her father" had died (why not "my grandfather"?) And in the midst of such tragic news, why does she feel the need to mention that her sister got married in a Next dress?
Lots of comments on the DM website about the fact that Liz had bought a £5000 air ticket to Australia to see the FRS, and then decided not to go when he told her not to. (Previously she had said she couldn't afford to go to visit her nephew).
I just hope she has been given the sister's permission before making the details of this tragedy so public.
As for the MoS column....it's completely incoherent, swerving around from one jumble of unconnected subjects to another!