Seales Lecretia - Lecretias choice: a story of love, death and the law

In 2015 Matt Vickers supported his wife, Lecretia Seales, in her campaign to gain the right to choose how she died. Lecretias Choice is his first book.

For more information, please visit lecretia.org.

Facebook: facebook.com/lecretiaschoice

Twitter: @lecretiaschoice

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Copyright Matt Vickers 2016

The moral right of Matt Vickers to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

First published in 2016 by The Text Publishing Company

Cover photograph by Matt Vickers

Cover design by Text

Page design by Jessica Horrocks

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Creator: Vickers, Matt, author.

Title: Lecretias choice: a story of love, death and the law/by Matt Vickers.

ISBN: 9781925355598 (paperback)

ISBN: 9781925410020 (ebook)

Subjects: Seales, Lecretia. BrainTumorsPatientsNew ZealandBiography.

Right to dieMoral and ethical aspects. Assisted suicideMoral and ethical aspects.

EuthanasiaLaw and legislationNew Zealand.

Dewey Number: 362.196994810092

In memory of my beloved wife,

Lecretia Anne Seales

19732015

With respect and love to the families of Brittany Maynard, Robin Stransham-Ford, Gloria Taylor, Diane Pretty, Marie Fleming, Sue Rodriguez, Chantal Sbire, Ramn Sampedro, Terry Pratchett and the many, many others who overcame their suffering to campaign and fight for modern and compassionate assisted-dying laws on behalf of all of us.

Chapter 1

I WILL ALWAYS remember the sense of surprise and intensity of feeling when I first went out with Lecretia.

I had met her three days earlier. It was a Friday evening. Id gone to an ex-girlfriends farewell party at Hummingbird, a bar on Courtenay Place in Wellington. My ex was moving back to Greece to start a job there. It was 7 July 2003 and I rather hoped she might return my Smiths CDs. I took a friend along with me, a guy named Rodney who drew cartoons.

I remember being immediately drawn to a woman sitting at the long table by the window. It was an hour past sunset, and the last light from behind the horizon was sustained by the glow of the streetlights. She was sitting with a group of girlfriends who were in animated conversation. She would interject now and then, but mostly she smiled and laughed. She wore a stylish leather jacket and her hair was tied in two braids. Her smile was generous and she was extraordinarily beautiful.

A waitress passed by me with a plate of thin fries balanced on a tray, clearly bound for these young women. As she passed, I reached out on a whim and took one, without the waitress noticing, and ate it, smiling at the braided woman as I did so.

This got their attention. They called out to me in indignation and I wandered over, apologising. Im sorry, I couldnt resist. Bolstered by several beers worth of courage, I sat down and introduced myself. I was still about three chairs away from the braided woman, who was clearly amused by me but didnt say very much. I stole glances at her as I talked to one of her friends. I learned that the women were mostly workmates from a Wellington law firm. They were all drinking champagne.

Now my friend Rodney joined us and we proceeded to banter with the girls. To my annoyance, Rodney sat next to the braided girl and was soon deep in conversation with her. After some time, and feeling envious, I reminded him that we were expected at another bar.

I kind of had my eye on her, I said, once we were out on the street.

Alls fair in love and war, mate. She gave me her card. Seriously?

At the new bar I tried to converse with Rodneys friends, but I couldnt take my mind off the woman at Hummingbird. After a drink or two, I slipped out unnoticed and headed back to Courtenay Place.

The girls were still there and I joined them, offering some excuse for Rodneys absence as I sat down next to the braided girl. We started to talk. She was a lawyer from Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty, and her name was Lecretia. Thats a lovely name, I said. She was tipsy, and so was I. And somehow, over several drinks, we ended up kissing there in the bar, in front of her amused friends and colleagues.

My phone beeped. It was a text from Rodney: Where are you?

Alls fair in love and war, I texted back.

I was still kissing Lecretia when Rodney arrived back at the bar. At this point Lecretias friends had decided it was time to move on. We went around the corner to another bar on the pretext of dancing, but all that happened was I ended up kissing Lecretia some more. Finally Lecretias friends decided it was time to call it a night. They piled into a cab, and Rodney and I hopped into a taxi up to Mount Victoria, in search of another party.

I woke the next day with a hangover, and thinking of Lecretiawho was that girl Id kissed last night? I had enjoyed kissing her so much. I was already smitten.

I didnt know her last name, so I googled her. Lecretia, lawyer, wellington. I found her almost immediately. Lecretia Seales was an associate at Chen Palmer & Partners in Wellington. I looked at her picture. She was as beautiful as I remembered. I needed to see her again. But her contact details werent on the website.

I called Rodney, remembering he had her card. I need Lecretias contact details.

Im still upset with you.

Look, I need to ask this girl out. We kissed. If she says no, you can ask her out.

You owe me one, he said.

Now I had her work number and her email address. On Sunday, after I had recovered from my hangover, I decided to write to her.

hello lecretia ...

we met on friday, at hummingbird ... we were all very badly behaved and i am sure that if there is an afterlife, we will be called to account for it ... after i left you outside hummingbird, i went to a party in mt. victoria somewhere where i tried to convince the revellers that i was an idiot savant ... it didnt really work out ... in the morning (or rather, early afternoon), i awoke with a splitting headache and a great deal of moral guilt ... but thats bohemianism for you ... its all about the present, and never the consequences ...

speaking of consequences: the consequence of giving me your business card is this missive ... i would like the chance to meet you in a less bacchanalian environment ... im not normally so crass and bold ... i am usually a gentle creature of forethought and passion ... well, maybe ...

do you have a cellular phone by which i could reach you? ... i could call you at work, but i would prefer not to ...

in any case, it was a pleasure to meet you ... i hope to hear from you ...

matt

At the time I was halfway through a writing degree, and my supervisor still had some way to go to knock all of the pretentiousness out of me. I thought the use of lower case and ellipses to string fragments of sentences together was very sophisticatedas though I was too nonchalant and freewheeling for the jolt of a full stop. And of course she hadnt given me her business cardshed given it to Rodney. I hoped she wouldnt remember that detail.