Tess Daly: How close have you come to death?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Tess Daly said elsewhere, not written here

On a motorway three years ago. An HGV hadn’t seen me and pulled out. My father-in-law’s a truck driver and he said black cars are not very visible. I don’t drive them any more.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 December 2016 source ↗

Others on this question

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Simone Biles United States artistic gymnast

In dreams, but that’s about it.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 February 2017 source ↗

Warren Zevon Songwriter and musician

This is a lot harder for you than it is for me. If you had gone to bed as many nights as I did in the old days knowing that you had taken so much stuff that could kill you and not knowing if you would wake up, this is not as shocking as you think.

Recorded The New York Times Magazine, 26 January 2003 source ↗

Carlos Acosta Cuban ballet dancer

In 1989, in Cuba, about to board a plane for Milan, where I was going to school for a year. The visa didn’t arrive in time, so I couldn’t board. The plane crashed and people died.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 September 2018 source ↗

Ram Dass Spiritual teacher and author

I was close to death, and I didn't rush into my spirit. I spent the time in the hospital just looking at the pipes on the ceiling. ... I failed because this was a trauma, a trauma, and I'm not reacting to it spiritually.

Recorded Ross Simonini, The Believer, issue 115, by Skype from Hawaii, 20 November 2017 source ↗