The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock

by Jane Riley

Thou shalt not grow too large to fit comfortably into a standard-size coffin: I must start exercising.

what I really yearned for was a partner. And love. Ideally both at the same time.

I know it sounds silly but I like chatting to cadavers. If I’m honest, it eases my loneliness and there are times when it helps make things clearer. Helps sort the dross from the vaguely sensible thoughts clattering around my mind

Maybe we all need an inanimate person to talk to?

She was adept at building a doorless igloo around her heart. No one was getting in, least of all herself.

Grief clobbered me on the head with the full force of a cricket ball and made me flounder, as if treading water in the deep, scared to drown in sadness.

I hadn’t realised how much she had been with me in my head,

I was alive but not living.

I tried to calm her down and Jean rushed in with a biscuit, as if that were a cure-all for any crisis, but she wasn’t interested.

Oliver's love of food, and his belief that it can help in nearly any situation, is one of the reasons I like him so well!

I wanted to be alone and yet, ironically, I didn’t want to be alone!

I relate!

Is it possible to look homeless when you have a home? Is it possible to feel homeless when you have a home? I can tell you that it is.

Married, middle aged woman relates so well to this single, middle aged man. Getting to peek inside Oliver's mind reminds me how we are all more similar than we often think.

You’ve got to accept all the different cloud formations that come and go and may do so for some time yet. They’re all part of the process, Oliver. Do not berate yourself for the clouds, do not worry if they hang around, do not fret if they bring storms; let them. Let them wash you, cleanse you, refresh you.

Advice for grieving. Accept the storms as well as the more temperate weather.

If you don’t care enough about yourself, who will?

Somehow I had to turn from fantasiser to doer; I had to banish the clouds and find the blue sky. I edged across the sofa so that I was no longer sitting in my usual spot in the middle. The seat cushion was firmer, less sunken closer to the end. I could still watch the television, even if it meant a slightly angled view, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

Sometimes, sitting in a new spot is a really big deal.

sometimes life has a strange way of showing us it cares. And the act of accepting this can be the hardest thing to do.’

It was draining trying to love things that didn’t love me back.

Life lesson!

I realised that being single and lonely was better than being taken and unhappy.

How wonderful to have someone care about you so much when they didn’t have to at all,

what else have we got left in the end but memories?’