"It matters a great deal who is going to win, but not at all who won"
Lillian
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a biography, David Emery, Hodder, 1971.ISBN 0340156066
Lillian Board was born in 1948 and died of cancer in 1970. In her short athletics career, she won an Olympic silver and two European golds. The book tells the story of her career and her illness.
There are several references to Christianity.
“Lillian, baptised in St Paul’s Church, Durban, had come to rest twenty-two years later and six thousand miles away at St Paul’s, London”.
“Religion had ceased to make sense for me once Lillian died and I felt a certain sympathy for the Dean, the Very Reverend Martin Sullivan, whose duty [at the funeral]called on him to offer an explanation. He urged us to think of Lillian as being close to Jesus; the suffering over”.
“I believe in God and still say my prayers every night although I don’t feel the need to go to church. I feel so ruthless in competition that I sometimes worry that perhaps I’m not good enough to go to Heaven, if there is such a place”. (Lillian)
“I thanked God that I’d always been a pretty good liar because I knew in die next few weeks it was going to be my biggest virtue”.
“But I just feel Lillian’s going to get better. If there’s any justice at all in this world she must get better. I’m praying and praying. I’m doing my housework when I suddenly find I’m on my knees. Surely He must hear me?” Frances, mother
“I decided to spend the next couple of hours in a small church at Petersham, just outside Richmond. I had never been very religious but, on a couple of previous occasions in my life when I had felt die need to pray I had gone to that church”.