A few days after the finish of the show, and before returning to ‘the Steyning dullness,’ Gluck slipped in her hotel room alone at night and broke her right wrist. She suffered the pain until morning, then was taken to the hospital. The next day she went home with her arm in plaster. It was a symbolic return, for her painting days were done and her broken wrist and swollen hand were the literal expression of this finish. Trivialities she professed to abhor consumed her attention again. Something was wrong with the Aga and Miss Vye was off on holiday. Gluck and Edith packed to spend the month of July with Nesta, the travel arrangements all seen to by Louis. It was to be Edith’s last holiday. Nesta arranged for a physiotherapist to treat Gluck’s hand three times a week: ‘I am very upset to think that I shall perhaps be a nuisance over this but it is apparently crucial to my recovery for painting or even perhaps living,’ Gluck forlornly told her (11 June 1973). She still had the same unwavering desire to create, but the blaze of glory was over, though the longing for a truth she could live and the desire to reach the haven of death with a prize in her hand stayed with her until the end.
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