Rememberances
Alan Jenkins
For Marie
Reports of my survival may be exaggerated
How can you be lying there?
Immodestly, among the rubble
When we want you to be here
In some other kind of trouble —
Luffing up, in irons, perhaps,
Just downstream from the Dove,
Lost in South London, without maps,
Or capsized in love.
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Cat Colvin
Foreword to “On the Front Line”
Published by HarperPress, 2012
To me, a world without Marie is unimaginable. I am just now beginning to experience this shadow of a place, and for the first time, there is no Marie to give me comfort or guide me through. Marie has so many friends and colleagues who loved her so deeply, and countless admirers who were awed by her courage as a journalist. While I mourn together with those who loved her and take enormous pride in her accomplishments, my tribute is to my big sister and lost soul mate.
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Katrina Heron
Eulogy for Marie Colvin
Delivered at the funeral mass on March 12, 2012, at the Church of St. Dominic, Oyster Bay, New York
On behalf of Marie’s family, thank you for coming today to celebrate her life. These surroundings are, it must be said, a bit sedate for her taste. Marie would take one look around — so delighted to see all the people here whom she loved — and say, “Um, can we move this party? I know a great little place down the street…”
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Jane Wellesley
Marie: A Remembrance
Delivered at the reception following funeral services, March 12, 2012, Oyster Bay, New York.
Marie was quite simply my best and dearest friend, but I speak for her many, many friends in England who loved her, and most especially her girl friends. For, as others have said, she was the most wonderful girls’ girl. Marie was passionate about everything she engaged with, and that included friendship.
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John Witherow
Silver Girl Sails Off into the Night
The editor of The Sunday Times salutes a woman of guts and glamour who loved to party but did not flinch from her dangerous occupation
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Lyse Doucet
A Tribute to Marie Colvin
Lyse Doucet pays tribute to journalist Marie Colvin killed in Homs
Friends and colleagues have been paying tribute to Marie Colvin, the Sunday Times reporter killed in the Syrian city of Homs.
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Alex Shulman
Cashmere & Pearls Beneath the Combats
The Sunday Times of London
As is the case with many extraordinary people, ordinary things were difficult for Marie, but friendship was not one of them. She was surrounded by friends the world over and had developed a particularly devoted and large network in London. Her talent for friendship involved her being constantly in touch (apart from when she would terrifyingly go Awol), being always admiring and loyal (Marie’s friends could commit murder and she would find a way to see it from their point of view) and making us feel like she really needed us.
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Jerelyn Hanrahan
Two Girls Together
I met Marie through a mutual boyfriend, Christopher Biggart. Marie was dating Christopher, and through circumstances of youth, I began dating Christopher. The first time I met Marie, we were 16. She came over to Christopher’s house, clearly to assess the situation. Even then she took things head on. She left an indelible impression.
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Jane Bonham Carter
A Girl’s Girl
I’d say I had three best girlfriends and Marie was one of them. We’ve known each other for years and years, she was a very special person. One of the things I keep saying to everyone, because of the way she died, is that you mustn’t think she was one of those dour foreign correspondents courting death. She loved life, she absolutely loved it. She was such a wonderful combination of combat fatigues and elegance. She used to get very cross with me because I said when I first met her she was wearing camouflage, and she absolutely denied this. Her dress sense was incredible. I bet Marie was wearing the most wonderful underwear when she died.
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Helen Fielding
We met 25 years ago through a mutual friend, Jane Wellesley. It was such fun and such a privilege being Marie’s friend because she was at once the fearless, committed, globally distinguished war correspondent, and at the same time a total girl’s girl. She really cared about her friends. She was kind. She made time for us, she listened, she cheered us up and let us cheer her up. And she would always laugh — especially at herself.
Marie really liked people and all the detail and muddle of being human and I think that was part of why she did what she did. She risked her life again and again, and lost her life, to tell the truth and stick up for people. I will miss her terribly and am so proud of her.
Dominique Roch
Simply the Best
I can still hear you Marie, singing at the top of your lungs Tina Turner’s song, playing on my car’s CD player. It was a sunny morning back in May 2005 and I was doing the driving between Jerusalem and Jaffa on the Mediterranean coast while Aviram Zino, our newly met young friend, journalist and fixer — you immediately detected in him a high potential for entertainment — was sharing the experience.
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John Cassidy
In the club that she loved
Patrick Cockburn
The Memorial Wall
Marie made a very deep and lasting impression on many of us: her family, her friends, her colleagues, her international audience, and the innumerable victims of war, repression and disaster for whom she bore witness. Shortly after her death admirers and mourners posted remembrances on a virtual Memorial Wall.
A few are captured here:
We will never forget you Marie
I just wanted to say that we thank Marie from the bottom of our hearts, we Syrian people will always remember her great contribution to the Syrian revolution .. we will always remember that there is someone scarified their own life to tell the world the truth of the Syrian regime. She was an angel who went there to help people and spread peace. I am so sorry for the loss of the family and I will always pray for her soul to rest in peace .
Thank you Marie
People of Syria
The Tamil people will never forget
Marie was a brave women who lost one of her eyes while reporting Tamil sufferings under brutal Sri Lanka government. She will be remembered by all the people of Tamil Eelam.
I Only Met Her Twice…
and neither time in person. I met Marie through the words and eyes of her sister Cathleen…Cat. On those two occasions that Cat spoke of Marie her eyes lit up and she spoke with a voice full of love, wonderment, and joy. She didn’t speak about her for very long, but the message was clear. Through Cat I met Marie twice and I’ll never forget it. The world as lost a superb journalist and greatly loved sister.
From Annie Lennox
I just wanted to share the blog I posted on the day, after I read what happened…I was trying to express the measure of my profound respect and admiration for Marie, and everything she stood for.
Exceptional men and women, who are prepared to put their own personal safety and security on the line, in order to bear witness to what would otherwise go unnoticed, are the rarest and most precious treasures in the world. It was an absolute honour to have met her.
The post:
“I’ve just learned the terrible news that veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin was killed in the besieged Syrian town of Homs earlier today, after the house that she was staying in was shelled. Marie was one of those special people that made you stand in awe. Boundlessly courageous, and passionately dedicated to justice and human rights, exceptional and exemplary, she was simply outstanding. I am deeply saddened to hear that her life has been taken, and bow my head to her nobility, and everything she stood for. My profound condolences go out to her family and friends.”
With love and deepest sympathy from Annie L.
Photojournalist Alexandra Avakian recalls friend and mentor
Dear family of Marie,
Marie was my mentor and close friend from 1988-1996, after which I stopped photographing conflict after shattering my knee on assignment. She was wonderful in so many ways. We had recently found each other again. I’m so sorry she did not meet me in Oman for a story I asked her to join me on about sailing there. I wrote this a couple days after her death: “I am utterly sad that my old friend, mentor, and traveling companion of days gone by — the legendary war correspondent Marie Colvin — has died under fire in Homs, Syria, while reporting for the Sunday Times of London, her newspaper.”
I owe her undying gratitude for her influence on my career early on, and our unforgettable times together, especially in Tunis, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Jerusalem and the West Bank. We recently spoke of meeting in Oman soon. I’m so sorry. Love to you Marie. You may also want to read my blog post for Oct. 20, 2011, with a story about me and Marie, flying into Libya on Yasser Arafat’s plane and meeting with Colonel Qaddafi. See also our New York Times Magazine cover story for that journey, which was our first together.
Thank you,
Alexandra Avakian
The Syrian people will remember her forever.
Marie Colvin sacrificed her life trying to save the Syrian people from being slaughtered by their own government, I didn’t meet Marie personally but her legacy will live forever in my heart and in all the Syrian people that she was trying to save. We created a page in her honor on Facebook.
My heart and my condolences goes to her family and I hope we can bring her home to her family so she can find peace.
Sincerely, Mohamad
Just thinking of you.
I did not know you but I was a huge admirer of your work and your bravery. I, like so many Sunday Times readers, learnt so much from you and we miss your words and your fierce honesty. I have been thinking about you alot in recent weeks as I have watched the news. You made me aware of the true injustice and the dangers of what was happening in Syria and I think your reports are as important now as they were then. You showed us courage and determination and you are remembered and greatly missed.
Sunday Time reader
Inspired me to my future career choice!
I have loved reading and writing my entire life. However its only been the last six or seven years that I have realized I want to become a journalist. I want to be out there, put my life on the line to give a voice to those who don’t have a voice. My biggest hero and inspiration was Marie Colvin! She lost so much to her career before her death but still kept doing what she did. I may not have known her in person but I will miss her and I hope one day I can make her proud!
Friend
Marie Colvin was:
An IAP before the concept became lingua franca, The quintessential kaleidoscopic personality, Always the chameleon, the midnight jet to anywhere just for a party, friends with every man she loved, an enigma to family, never defined by others, intolerant of anyone who lost sight of their destiny, the definition of the word “empathetic”.
Marie loved:
Watching the morning star fade, Scanning the horizon to capture the “green flash” at sunset, Intimate moments with friends, family and the children of her heart, The imploding world around her, Honesty, veracity, and unquestionable devotion to cause.
In life Marie:
Wore the past loosely, like an outgrown gown, Sported an eye patch, lest she forget how fragile life is, Like the City of Paris; her politics had left and right banks, Believed in the philosophy of Teilhard de Chardin and the Liturgy of Nichiren Daishonin.
My most treasured possession from Marie:
Is a photograph of a young Marie taken with a ten year old blond boy who is holding an Uzi machine gun and standing next to an Israeli soldier? On the back she wrote: “Sean Dwyer is a name you will need to grow into and it looks like you are on your way. Your Moms’ curly haired girlfriend, Marie”.
My favorite quote from Marie:
“Some of life’s most enigmatic moments leap at you from places you thought you had fully investigated.” Prophetic!
Kosovo to Homs, via Vanni
On behalf of all Tamils from Eelam, condolences to Marie’s mother, family and friends.
Marie was not an average journalist; she was brave, full of humanity and always reporting from the “other side,” else she would have ventured into conflict areas such as Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and East Timor. In doing so she put her life at great peril. Losing her left eye due to a blast by a Sri Lankan Army soldier while crossing from the LTTE controlled area to a Government controlled area did not deter her. She tried to mediate the surrender of senior LTTE personnel, but it ended in tragedy with them being murdered in cold blood. Today, the Sri Lankan government stands accused of human rights violations in relation to this murder and thousands of other murders. Marie’s evidence would have been crucial at winning a judgement against the Rajapaksa brothers in an international court of law. Sadly, what the Sri Lankan army attempted to do in the Vanni in 2001, the Syrians completed in 2012 in Homs.
RIP Marie, you will always live in the hearts of the Tamils.
People who make this world a better place to live – Marie Colvin
It is people like Marie Colvin who make this world a better place to live. They bring attention to the plight and suffering of voiceless people, to give them a chance, albeit a tiny chance. She did this for the Tamils of Sri Lanka, losing an eye in the process. Now she has done it for the Syrian people, having given her life in the process. When one’s heart aches and is energized into action for another human in another country, another continent, that is what humanity is all about. Marie Colvin was that wonderful human. God bless her soul.
Kumar Kumarappan
Vice President of BOYCOTT Sri lanka – US Tamil Political Action Committee
Oh Marie Colvin, noble daughter of this Nation,
So many stayed out of conflict zones less newsworthy,
Yet you , trekked the no-go zones in Sri Lanka;
“Journalist!” you shouted, the government grenade their response
Blinding your left eye, for speaking the truth of Tamil misery;
You refused to fake an eye, choosing to wear a black patch
Your devotion to Truth and true journalism, did not have a match
Transcending barriers you negotiated surrenders
But In the killing fields of Sri Lanka, Tamil white flags were blood splattered.
Then the Arab Spring, too hard to resist, and off you went
To witness the pangs of humanity and powers of insanity,
The “free world” media that ignored your Sri Lankan reports
Now paid accolades for your reports on Syrian location
Sri Lankan war criminals took out your eye,
Syrian despots snuffed out your life,
You witnessed last gasps of innocents,
Your courage immortalized the victims.. , Oh Marie.
How can we thank you?…
From the hearts of the Tamil people .. with deep felt gratitude
via Dr E. Shander
Wish her extraordinary spirit can be a shining light in the career of young journalists
I am just an ordinary student who study journalism. Ever since I saw the coverage of Marie, she is an idle and learning model for our young journalist. I admire her courage and her determination in her career. I wish every journalist can have this kind of determination to do things in their career, also carry om Marie’s spirit and committeemen.
Vice President, USTPAC
It is an extraordinary courage that keeps a person to bring to the world the News from very dangerous situations, It is News that the family and friends await but cannot get it. Even after losing an eye what courage it is to continue that pursuit. The Sri Lankan killing was a very tense moment for Tamils all over the world. What you did and tried to do till the end melts our hearts and the Tamils world over thank you sincerely .
There is a moral Tamil book Thirukkural written 2000 years ago that says the courage is not only fighting a war but for some thing you really love. Your love of Humanity and the common man and woman affected in terrible situations speaks volumes for peaceful co existence of mankind.