Pictures From a Pandemic: Edwina Sandys

By ANTHONY HADEN-GUEST July, 2020 

Edwina Sandys, who has been here well over forty years and was long married to the late Richard Kaplan, is at the same time wholly British and a confirmed New Yorker though with a foot in Palm Beach. An artist, like her grandfather, Winston Churchill, Edwina Sandys paints, draws, sculpts, and has executed public commissions, with raw energy and a sometimes disconcerting vision.  - AHG 

            TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN…….

Just thinking about the Virus has got me thinking about the Second World War, which was what we called it, although I was too young to remember much about it. But for many years people harked back to it. It was a line drawn in time. Everything was PRE or POST WAR. When the men went to the WW2, the women were galvanized into action. This happened on both sides of the Atlantic. My mother Diana joined the WRENS, my Aunt Sarah the ATS, my aunt Mary the ATS. This was in a way a precursor to Women’s Lib.

 At that time people were very concerned about GERMS. Wear gloves, never touch coins – you don’t know where they have been - never drink out of the same glass as anyone else. Like now. Except the virus is keeping us alone and away from each other. And although there are many means of communication available, I find myself in a sort of daze as I withdraw more and more – making less and less phone calls, not really interested in ZOOMING - quite the opposite to my usual behavior as a full-time, wholly committed people person. 

 So now I leaf through my empty diary - not sure what day of the week it is - Got to go now - need some exerc……….ise... 

Edwina Sandys June 20/20 WM