Sommerspeciel i Ghita Nørbys have - Del 2

“I’m looking forward to dying,” Ghita Nørby says calmly, early in this conversation. She is 90 years old, sitting in her garden Rosenhaven, and she means it without a trace of morbidity. “I think it’s going to be wonderful. I have lived a long life, I have experienced so much. I have seen all the roses that you need to look at.” This is not a woman retreating from life; she is still burning her candle at both ends, as her grandmother once told her to. The second part of this summer special with one of Denmark’s most celebrated actors is a meditation on aging, loss, loneliness, and the peculiar craft of acting itself.

On losing and loneliness

Nørby draws a sharp distinction between different kinds of loss. She lost a sister six years ago when the sister was murdered by her girlfriend—a sudden, violent rupture. “A lot of things happen,” she says of waking up that morning. She contrasts this with a prolonged illness, where you “have time to say goodbye and talk about things.” But she refuses to rank which is harder. “I just can’t figure out what’s the hardest part,” she says, because those conversations where you know death is near are “almost impossible” too.