MEMORIES IN MANSFIELD PLACE BASEMENT

Passers-by may have noticed this beautiful piece of furniture in a basement on Mansfield Place, but comparatively few will know the bitter-sweet story behind its appearance.

The piece is in fact a memorial bench, donated by her family to the memory of Annie Garven who died in 2011. 

Garven, a professional genealogist (pictured left in full voice), sang with Loud & Proud, Scotland’s LGBT choir which regularly raises funds for the Waverley Care charity based here in Broughton. For Garven, who had lost many close friends tragically young to AIDS, Waverley Care’s work – helping people and their partners/family living with the blood-borne viruses Hepatitis C and HIV – was very close to her heart.

Annie Garven was, reads L&P's newsletter, ‘unique in so many ways [...] the only woman in the Tenors and [...] much loved by her pals in that section. She was the lead organiser for the choir’s trip to Paris in 2011 and an accomplished traveller and polyglot’.

Edinburgh playwright Jo Clifford’s touching memory of her – ‘Passionate and kind, a hugely intelligent individual it was always a pleasure to be with’ – can be found here in her online diary.

It was Garven’s sister Jane who chose ‘Fiere Good Nicht’ by LGBT icon Jackie Kay to read at the funeral, and a chance encounter with the poet also led to the latter’s agreement to become more closely involved with the choir. ‘I'm extremely touched to have been invited to be patron,’ she said at the time. ‘It seems a fitting thing to happen in Annie's memory and she was obviously a much-loved member. I didn't know her, yet I imagine that she would have appreciated the serendipity of our paths crossing. I love choirs and feel passionately that singing together in a group can be a powerful and healing experience.’

A Memorial Award, again donated by her family, now helps subsidise choir members on trips to sing abroad.

The bench – a collaboration in oak between woodcarvers Roger Hall and Graeme Murray – was installed on World Aids Day last year (1 December 2012).

*****

                  Fiere Good Nicht 

              (after Gussie Lord Davis)
                   
When you’ve had your last one for the road,
a Linkwood, a Talisker, a Macallan,
And you’ve finished your short story,
and played one more time Nacht und Traüme,
with Roland Hayes singing sweetly;
and pictured yourself on the road,
the one that stretches to infinity,
and said good night to your dead,
and fathomed the links in the long day –

then it’s time to say Goodnight fiere,
and lay your highland head on your feather pillow,
far away – in England, Canada, New Zealand –
and coorie in, coorie in, coorie in.
The good dreams are drifting quietly doon,
like a figmaleerie, my fiere, my dearie,
and you’ll sleep as soond as a peerie,
and turn, turn slowly towards the licht:
goodnight fiere, fiere, Good Nicht.

                                                        Jackie Kay

[published by Picador in the collection Fiere, ISBN 9780330513371]