What did he mean??

[KatBradshaw]

This is a trivial little point, and I understand that many may see it as pointless, but I was looking over the details of Polly Nichols as I find her an interesting character and often over looked.
I was looking at the last comment made to her bu her husband as she was being buried. I have the comment as;
“I forgive you, as you are, for what you have been to me.”
I just wondered what anyone thought he meant? Its a bit rich to me forgiving a woman that you cheated on while she was having your fourth child. Am I misunderstanding what he meant? Or am I maybe seeing Polly through the sympathetic eyes of someone who knows what became of her?

[Monty]

Hey Kate,

Well we dont know those words were certainly uttered. The press do like to embelish from time to time.

However, if he did say that then we must remember there are two sides to every relationship story. It could have been a reference to her own infedelity (not saying that she had been, just chucking ideas) or to a possible drink problem.

Whilst we are learning about the victims we do not know them personally, though some think they do.

There may be many dark issues behind those we think we know...including Polly, Annie, Liz, Chick and Mary.

Monty

[KatBradshaw]

This is tru Monty. As we know from today's press many words are attributed to people that were never said or are misquoted.
I tend to get my hackles raised by the misogyny of the LVP and I guess if this quote, if it is true, smacks of the double standard of the time.

[DVV]

Whilst we are learning about the victims we do not know them personally, though some think they do.
Monty

Hi Monty,

quite true!
If we listen to Dew, Emma Smith was a lady...
In fact, she drank, got black eyes at times, "acted like a mad woman"... Not to mention the window episode.

Tabram also was an excellent person. But just ask Ann Morris...

Nichols left her husband with their chidren, and the life she lived prevented her to do anything good for them. And the way her employment at the Cowdry's ended up is pathetic.

Annie Chapman was ready to fight for nothing at the age of 47, and used to "wander about the country like a common tramp" when married...

Liz Stride? Too much to say about her - her life would deserve a novel.

I think we can accept Kate as a good and funny little woman.

Mary was a good girl too...but not after three beers.

And didn't Coles try to rob Sadler?

Perhaps, whatever his own mistakes, the man Nichols felt with reasons that Polly had broken part of his life. My opinion is that his reported words are true.
First, they sound true, and the very wording, a bit twisted, doesn't indicate embellishment or invention, imo.

Amitiés,
David

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Kat!

How about this interpretation;

"I remember you as you were to me. Not as what you became!"?!

To you point about her being overlooked; to me she was the most ordinary of C5. Not as difficult as Annie Chapman, not as interesting as Liz Stride, not as witty as Catherine Eddowes, not as mysterious as Mary Jane Kelly...

In general, when I read their biographies back in 2004, I was suprised about the following thing; obviously they had been pretty well to do. But the troublesome past with their men...

All the best
Jukka

[Sam Flynn]

How about this interpretation;

"I remember you as you were to me. Not as what you became!"?

That's my reading of it, too, Jukka - I've always seen an implied "once" in the sentence somewhere.

[KatBradshaw]

I think as well as unnecessary 'rose tinted glasses' ways of looking at the vitcims the fact that I a bit of a misandrist doesn't help