When Ruby Langford Ginibi died on 2 October 2011, I felt as if I had lost a member of my own immediate family. To some one who did not know Ruby or her writing, it could seem odd that a conventional white male academic, who had met her only on her visits to La Trobe University in the 90s and hadn’t seen her for over ten years, should feel this way. But to anyone who had met her or read her writing it would be no surprise at all. She was an emotionally generous woman, who had learnt through hard experience the meaning of friendship and kept it in repair. In a quite remarkable way she connected with people of all kinds and conditions: I was but one among many who felt her as a presence in their lives and were changed in subtle ways by knowing her.
Copyright © John Barnes 2012. This text may be archived and redistributed both in electronic form and in hard copy, provided that the author and journal are properly cited and no fee is charged.