Michael Palin of Monty Python fame announced this morning that Helen Gibbins, his wife of 57 years, had passed away following several years of chronic pain and kidney disease.
Aside from Monty Python, Palin is remembered for his various travelogue series. In April 2000, not long after I first moved to Boston, I saw and met Palin at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline. Palin was promoting his Hemingway Travels series for PBS. I asked him question about Hemingway's relationship with Canadian writer Morley Callaghan and his work at The Toronto Star.
Yet what I remember most about that afternoon was another question from an audience member who had asked Palin of all the places he had traveled where he would like to live. Palin replied, "I like it in London where I've lived in the same house with the same woman for the past 30 years - my wife doesn't know."
I have no doubt that everything up to the punchline was and remained true. I also have no doubt that house will never feel the same to Michael Palin ever again. My condolences. R.I.P.
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