Lennart Gram : A Personal Tribute

I was shocked to hear of Lennart’s recent, sudden, unexpected and tragic death. I knew him to have been ill, but had thought him to have recovered and to be well again. Perhaps it is because I was by training a psychiatrist, and therefore have knowledge of and empathy with the despair and hopelessness that leads to self destruction that I am particularly touched by his death and feel that in some difficult to define way the art that we practice, failed him. I knew Lennart for many years, and was particularly pleased to ask him to join the Editorial Board of Seizure when we first started. I admired him for his knowledge, liked him for his sense of humour and humanity, and valued his support. He was one of those rare doctors who are liked by both his colleagues and by his patients—he was the Danish version of Peter Jeavons. Lennart has left a scientific legacy in his many papers and publications, an educational legacy in terms of his writings for people with epilepsy, and a personal legacy in terms of his concern and care for his patients. My strongest memory of him is of an early evening, some years ago, at the end of a conference, talking with him and one of his patients—an experience and memory that has always stayed in my mind—‘still are thy voices, thy nightingales, awake, For death he taketh all away but these he cannot take’.