life
INTERVIEW
Photo above: Turning film into funds: Gloria with Anthony Minghella at the premier of Breaking and Entering, at the Medina Theatre, which
raised money for the IW Motor Neurone Disease Association
Gloria Minghella
Part 2: The present years
The following interview took place before the tragic death of Anthony
Minghella. All at Island Life offer their sincere condolences to the
Minghella family
It is telling that Gloria Minghella likens
her charity work to making a hamper
of sandwiches. We meet just after a
fundraising trip to London for the Motor
Neurone Society, and she is touchingly
delighted by a thank-you letter from
one of the trippers. “.. words are not
enough to thank you, and for that magic
hamper with the wine, sandwiches and
chocolates”, it says.
Gloria had taken a group to see
Anthony’s production of Madam Butterfly
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at the Coliseum. The coach party had
missed the ferry and there was a long wait.
Gloria, naturally, had felt responsible, but
that morning she and her husband Edward
had made a pile of sandwiches, “just in
case”. For the trippers, it was the final
touch of brilliance that made their day.
“That’s really my philosophy of life: if
you put in what you can, no matter how
little that is, you don’t know how far the
ripples will go.”
Ripples might be how Gloria sees her
life’s work, but as she has shown, ripples
make waves. Using her son’s films to make
money for her causes has proved a winner,
though she is finding the organisation
of such events increasingly tiring. “I
said ‘never again’,” she smiles, “though
Anthony always tells me never to say
never. And when you get lovely thank-you
letters like this you start planning the next
event.”
Gloria’s tireless work for charity was
recognised last year when she was made
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