Funeral Tributes

On occasions like this we are expected to say goodbye to the deceased and to think in terms of a last farewell. Yet, what we experience is very different: at once feelings and thoughts are evoked which prove how very much she is still with us and will be with us for ever after as she lives on in our minds.

The image of the recent ‘other’ Anna Freud, who could no longer be independent and active because she was overwhelmed by the stresses of old age, prompts me to thank her faithful friends and dedicated nursing team: her medical advisers, Dr Toszeghi and Dr Stross; the day-nurse, Margaret, and the night-nurses; her devoted housekeeper, Paula, who had been so long with the family (ubiquitous, in spite of her own handicaps); Sheila O'Brian, the house-help, who kept things going; Jula Weiss, first as secretary, then as accountant; Gina Bon, her private and Clinic secretary; Manna Friedmann and Alice Colonna; her regular visitors; and not least Keith Deane, the gardener, who constantly strove to create visual pleasures for her until the last.

The image of Anna Freud in very old age is, however, quickly replaced by the many memories of the lively, active and determined lady to whom we owe so much. It is coloured by regret that in spite of encouragement by many people (including myself) she seemed equally determined not to leave some autobiographical notes for posterity. But perhaps it was unreasonable to expect everything of a person who, in any case, left us so many tangible and intangible signs of her illustrious life.

Each of us knows a person differently, and I had the privilege of knowing Anna Freud at all stages in my development, as an infant, a child, an adolescent and as an adult; so I hope you will allow me a few reminiscences from a number of different vantage points, as nephew, student and colleague. Anna Freud knew me before I knew her—our first encounter may well have been when I was still in the cradle. When my mother died Anna, who was the sibling next to he