A Part of me Dies

Mourning public figures as an act of excavation

Yesterday I saw, like most everyone else, that Sinéad O’Connor has died.

I remember being very young, home alone (I was almost always alone) and watching Nothing Compares 2 U on TV. Being struck then, as I am now, not only by Sinéad’s beautiful face, but her eyes. Their directness and authentic fierceness, which slowly transforms to sadness as she begins singing about her mother.