This
term was actually used by Sylvia years after the Ducks had
ceased to be. She was talking about the short time she and
Harry had together before he did his famous vanishing act.
Yet, when I hear this song, in my mind it would have been
Red that it referred to. They had 12 years together but Harry
told me that their relationship was stuck in perpetual autumn.
Apart from all else, Frida uses the line 'and your name is
Harry' how weird is that, it was never his real name, just
one used to protect his real identity?
This is what Sylvia had to say.
This chapter is reproduced with kind permission
from Sylvia
Partly duplicated from
an earlier comment
After sitting down
and analyzing the whole wonderful year we were together,
there is now no doubt in my mind that Harry was dying.
I don’t mean figuratively, I mean literally dying.
I have seen many people in the same frame of mind,
they just ‘stop’. In most it could be regarded as
a sign of weakness, these are the people who are running
away; but that is not the case here. Life gave him
one hell of a pounding and each time he got up and
shook it off. But there comes a time when even the
strongest of us just can’t get up again. I think that’s
what he was trying to tell me when I asked him to
marry me. The major problem was that Harry had/has
a personality that is founded on laughter; it’s the
core of what he is. Then the day arrived when he simply
couldn’t laugh anymore and on that day he started
to die.
Although the thought breaks my heart, perhaps it is
for the best, he doesn’t belong here. As the ‘Dreaded
Norwegian Woman’ sang in their ‘Zorba’ song: -
Let me see the joy of each
new sunrise
Or the moment when the day dies
Harry had seen countless sunrises and I believe he was now
sufficiently tired to welcome the time ‘when the day dies’.
I think he will then, at last, find the home he always yearned
for and I think Red will be waiting for him, I hope so.
Goodbye Harry. Thank you for being with me for a while and
for the tale of the 'Sea Eagles'. I would love to believe
you have many distant horizons to yet explore. You are not
the bad person you believe yourself to be; in fact I think
you were put here by the god you don’t believe in to make
things a little better for a lot of people. I shall pray every
night that, wherever you are, you find the happiness you deserve
and peace of mind.
Harry once told me that Anna Minet was wife, sister, lover
and friend to him. I hope that I at least rated lover and
friend. I think I did. That will do for me.
I always felt there was something grand about the way Harry
signed off letters to special friends - So I will end this
the same way.
'May you always find safe harbour'
Find the sun Harry - soar again.
The price has been paid.
