Miriam Hyman (32) was on the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square, London, on July 7, 2007 when Hasib Hussain blew himself up. Miriam was a freelance imaging researcher on her way to work. She was also an artist, creative, outgoing, and well loved by her large circle of friends and longtime family. I only had to look at the overwhelming number of deeply felt tributes that have appeared online and in print over the last three years to appreciate this. On the day in question, Hussain and his henchmen planted a series of bombs on London’s transport system with the sole intention of causing maximum death and maiming in the UK capital.
Miriam’s sister, Esther, says that as her only sister, Miriam (Mim) was her closest confidant and that their relationship was irreplaceable. But after 7/7, rather than place the blame publicly, Esther reached out to Muslim groups near her Oxford home. She wanted to contact them after the attacks, extend the hand of friendship and make sure they knew she didn’t blame them as a community. Esther believes that all the current problems have arisen because we are divided worldwide. Her belief is that if she can show that what she wants is unity, then other people can do the same.
She and her family have spent the three years since 7/7 keeping Miriam’s memory alive with a series of events. They were convinced that something positive could come out of such a terrible event. They wanted to honor Miriam by establishing the Miriam Hyman Memorial Fund, which supports a charity called ORBIS, an international charity for the prevention and treatment of blindness in the developing world. Miriam studied Art History with French at University College London and went on to create many pastels, oils and silk paintings, and it seemed only fitting that the Memorial Fund set out to help the visually impaired.
In 2006, the Miriam Hyman Memorial Fund supported an eight-week ORBIS fellowship at London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital for Dr. Kuldeep Srivastava, an Indian pediatric ophthalmologist. He is the director of the Children’s Eye Care Center at Sadguru Netra Chikitsalaya (SNC), an eye hospital in Madhya Pradesh.
The fellowship developed Dr. Srivastava’s ability to provide children’s eye care services, and will provide training for colleagues in the skills he acquired in London. During the fellowship, Dr. Srivastava was mentored by consultant ophthalmologist John Lee, a leading figure in pediatric ophthalmology. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Esther Hyman and we talked about the Miriam Hyman Memorial Fund, her connection to India, her feelings on 7/7 and Miriam’s legacy.
I found Esther’s attitude and perspective deeply inspiring, especially after what she and her family had been through. After speaking with her, I realized that Esther and people like her are instrumental in sowing the seeds that can one day make the world a better place.
Can you tell why you decided to establish a memorial fund after 7/7?
We, Mim’s family and friends, felt the need to respond positively to the events of 7/7 and created a memorial fund to do something good. The hard part was deciding what to do with the background. We considered many possibilities, including scholarships and the like. Miriam herself was a fundraiser for charities. A friend of Miriam’s brought the charity ORBIS to our attention.
Why did you choose a vision-based charity?
It’s a bit of a creepy story actually. Although Miriam had no connection to ORBIS, her goal is to eliminate preventable blindness globally, and we knew she would identify with this. She highly valued the gift of sight. She discovered in her teens that she was myopic, and when she first wore glasses and could see the leaves on the trees, it was a revelation to her. Now for the creepy bit. One day, Mom was in Mim’s room and asked out loud, “Mim, I need some kind of sign, I just don’t know how to use this background!” The next morning, she received a call from Mim’s closest friend who didn’t know that ORBIS was one of the possibilities we were considering. He called mom to tell her that she had a dream but she didn’t know what it meant, but she knew she had to call mom and tell her.
She had dreamed that she was sitting next to Mim, who was carrying a white cane. In her dream, she was very worried and tried to ask Mim why she had the blind man’s cane and what was wrong with her, but Mim didn’t answer. She then woke up and felt that she had to call mom right away. Well, mom asked for a sign: could you be more clear?
What is special about ORBIS?
There are a few things that are particularly important to us about how they work. Firstly, they aim to train professionals in the use of simple and cheap operations to restore sight; for example, in the case of cataracts or strabismus, where a simple cheap procedure can completely restore sight, which is life changing.
Second, they train practitioners to train others so that the benefits of training are multiplied. Finally, ORBIS invests the principal and uses the interest; therefore, the money can be used in perpetuity.
How did the connection with India come about?
ORBIS operates in many countries and when we learned that the first person to receive support was going to be a pediatric ophthalmologist from India we were happy because we have a family connection to India: my mother is from Kolkata. Also, I was a teacher so I was delighted that he was a pediatrician.
The truth is that it was by chance that ORBIS assigned support to an Indian practitioner. However, we felt that it was a way of redistributing something from the West to the East. Fast forwarding a bit, I see that by December 6th the fund had raised £56,000. This must be a big part of your life now.
It consumes time and energy, but it is a healthy focus for our energies. In terms of keeping it going, we don’t have any strategy as such for the future of the fund. We are still surprised and delighted that it has continued this far, but we will continue to raise money for the MHMF and host any other events that seem appropriate for as long as is deemed appropriate. Not all events have been fundraisers that you see.
More of a celebration of Miriam’s life?
I think of it this way: I feel that Mim planted seeds in her lifetime and that she has left us the responsibility of nurturing those seeds and helping them flourish. The MHMF is a vehicle for this. She was such a positive person. I feel that she gave her life, in these particular circumstances, to do more good than she could do in life. That’s the kind of person she was. I think Miriam was also a bit of an activist. Yes, Miriam participated in those big street protests against the Iraq war in London a few years ago.
And what about your views?
I have tried to avoid placing blame in the public arena because I don’t feel it serves any constructive purpose. I don’t expect to be able to change world politics, but I must try to influence for the better, within my reach. I would also like to use my public voice to promote good relations between the Muslim population and the community at large.
Just one last thing, two years later, how do you feel about the people who planted those bombs…anger, sorry…?
Really, I just feel that they are wayward souls. I feel sad; not an all-consuming sadness as it was in the beginning, but a bleak sadness at our never-ending ability to pit against each other. But at the same time I am determined not to be ruled by negativity. It would be very easy to go into a huge downward spiral, but from the beginning my support systems have been very strong. I am blessed and I appreciate my blessings. If I have lost my sister, at least I have 32 years of good memories, and no one can take that away from me.
Since that interview, the MHMF has now changed direction by putting all its efforts into funding the newly built Miriam Hyman Eye Care Center for Children (MHCECC). It officially opened in Bhubaneswar, India on July 3, 2008. “Through the Miriam Hyman Memorial Trust, we have brought something positive out of the events of 7/7, which is a fitting legacy for my sister, a woman who she herself was so positive,” says Esther Hyman, for whom the opening of the center was very significant. She adds: “Two of Miriam’s great loves were nature and art, and she was aware that she could not appreciate them so fully without the gift of sight.”
The trust has raised over £70,000, which will be used to fund high quality comprehensive eye care for children who attend the centre, regardless of ability to pay. State-of-the-art surgical facilities will also be made available. Specialized pediatric teams will also be available. In addition, the trust will work to raise awareness of the high incidence of preventable childhood blindness in developing countries, which is especially important for India, which has approximately eight million blind people, of whom one million are less than 16 years.
The newly opened MHCECC is part of the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), which is a globally recognized center of excellence. Esther and Miriam’s parents, Mavis and John Hyman, initiated the collaboration between the trust and the LVPEI. Mavis Hyman says: “The MHCECC will be a living memorial for Miriam. This would have been a great pleasure for Miriam, who visited India twice with us. She felt a strong connection to the country and people from her.”
Esther traveled to India for the first time at the inauguration of the center. She says: “Children who benefit from the center’s services will experience an improvement in their quality of life and life chances, as early diagnosis and treatment of many conditions can significantly reduce the debilitating effects of visual impairment in a growing child.”