72 | October 2012 www.womanthismonth.com In a heartbeat, or the stopping of one, October 2011 was relegated to a lengthening list of times in my life that I will never forget, because of the person who passed away within it. It joins a bitter chronology that starts before my birth. I’m told, by my therapist no less, that we all have these chronologies and each one personalised for us all. What makes you remember a certain time and date can depend on the manner in which you hear, see or learn of the tragedy or even how it affects those around you. Mine reads as follows: 1956 The Willwatch disaster (a personal one of my mother’s, but which we as a family grew up remembering), 1963 Kennedy assassination, 1968 Martin Luther King assassination, 1972 John Lennon, 1986 Challenger Disaster, 1997 Lady Diana Spencer, 2001 September 11, 2011 Steve Jobs. Everyone’s list is different. An event that you may think changed the world barely rates a mention to me, for at the moment it happened I was doing something to distract my attention. As for last year’s loss of Jobs, I guess we all WoMentality Apple Cider “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me…Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” (Steve Jobs, The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1993) could have seen the illness creeping up on him and ourselves, yet his loss was still a shock. I guess somewhere in the recesses of our mind we all hoped that this billionaire could have found a way to use his brilliant mind, technologies and billions of dollars to circumvent the inevitable. Sadly, despite the money and the genius, the circle of life could not be halted. The loss of Jobs is not the only reason that I will remember that day though, for it was a double whammy for me. At first, despite the pain of my other loss, I actually thought that this could have been Job’s final act of brilliance. You see, the same day Steve Jobs passed away so too did my Apple MacBook Air. It just stopped. Those who know me well will realise how lost this made me. For those who don’t, trust me, it felt like I had lost a very close friend who I ate with, travelled with and even slept with. My MacBook Air and I were inseparable and so October 5 will remain with me for a long time. I have rarely been at such a loss. It truly was the day that my apple turned to cider. I wondered for a while if every Apple device on the planet had simply stopped working out of sympathy, or if Jobs had truly been from outer space as someone once theorised and with him gone so too had the power of the Apple. In the end I came to realise it had just been a sad coincidence - sad and bad! I was a late starter as far as computers and technology are concerned, and an even later starter with respect to all things Mac and Apple. But I am a solid believer now. Not only did Jobs advance my personal wealth through the increase in the Apple share price, but one of the most valuable tools I had in life was my MacBook Air. As a writer, my little Apple earned big dollars and became my tool of choice for tapping out books, blogs, magazine articles and more. Jobs had given me a companion with whom I had the most intimate relationship. The loss cut me deep. Losing Jobs was a massive loss to the planet and I truly mean that. No one human being pushed technology further, faster than he. But losing my MacBook Air hurt me personally and took a chunk of change with it. Trapped within its frazzled, burned out hard drive were a fiction novel, a television script and several dozen magazine articles. I am not new to loss, much of my life has been defined by it, but this one took me to a new level. The loss of both Jobs and my own beloved MacBook Air has taught me this; no one has the power or the money to prevent the inevitable. And girls — make sure you backup your computer every night before bed! By Hard-headed Woman
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