I doubt if I have ever read such an outpouring of respect, affection and sadness as the response prompted by Melanie Reid’s decision to bring her Saturday column in the Times magazine to an end. For 15 years my colleague (and friend) has been charting a life that changed forever when she was thrown from her horse and ended up paralysed, confined to a wheelchair, from which she wrote every week about extreme disability and how best to confront it.
She did so with great courage, not flinching from the darker aspects of her experiences, but injecting wit and warmth as well. “Raw, unfiltered, unpolished,” as one reader described it, but also “uplifting and inspiring” as more than 500 comments reflected.
For someone who has