Today is the 11th day of the 11th Month, which is Remembrance Day in Britain, for all those who died for their country in military conflicts.
 
So, it's a sad and solemn day already, made even sadder to hear so unexpectedly of Mrs. Eliot's death (my own mother is luckily forus all three years older than she, and stillliving independently).

It's good that Mrs. Eliot had made arrangements already to allow the Eliot Project to act as custodians of all his oevre; it will be interesting to learn of how she has ordered her final bequests, especially the Eliot Estate's copyrights.
 
Mrs. Eliot's own nephew, Graham Fletcher, wrote recently (for the UK TS Eliot Society's Newsletter):-

Even if Eliot had been a homosexually - inclined misogynist with closet fascist leanings, a wide streak of anti-Semitism, and contempt for others grounded in some elitist sense of intellectual and religious superiority, his work, when an unbiased attempt is made to read and understand it, would remain equally valid. If a sinner successfully constructs a saint upon the page, the saint will be equally inspiring as if another saint had been the author. The author of Murder

in the Cathedral was an exemplary human being, in my opinion, but he wouldn’t have considered himself worthy to have been canonised as a saint.

 
In further remembrance and tribute, attached is a snap of Mrs Eliot and Prof. Nancy Hargrove, taken I think by Dr Sarah Kennedy in 2010 at London Uni Senate House, at the second annual TS Eliot International Summer School, an event which Mrs Eliot very generously supported.
 
  
 
 
On 11 November 2012 00:40, P <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I shall reflect on how happy the Eliots were together. The little boy in Tom finally found safe company, and Valerie found fulfillment in his legacy and in Faber. It was a union fruitful for us all. I am sure their spiritual destiny will be very happy for them.
Requiescant in pace.
P.M.


"Materer, Timothy J." <[log in to unmask]> wrote:


From: "Schuchard, W Ronald" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Valerie Eliot

Dear Colleagues,
                I have just received the sad news that the BBC has announced the passing of Valerie Eliot. I do not have any further information but will share it as received. In her memory, and in appreciation for her life, and for all her husband’s work that she has placed in our care, Ron