The Margaret Moth Story: FEARLESS (or A Heroine Just Walked Into My Life)

Journalist and camerawoman Margaret Moth is one of a kind.

No doubt. No argument. And definitely no tears.

Born Margaret Wilson, Moth changed her last name after asking herself what stopped her from having her own moniker rather than inheriting her father’s, or adopting a husband’s.

Her choice was inspired, she says, by a friend’s Tiger Moth plane, from which she frequently sky dived as a young woman.

Aside from the fact that she chose her own name, Moth was unique in other ways. She was, for example, the first female camerawoman in New Zealand (and Australia).

But the name change, and the first-in-her-field distinction are minor details in the landscape of Moth’s amazing life.

What really sets her apart are her devotion to her work, her complete and utter fearlessness, and the strength of her character -- even, maybe even ESPECIALLY, in the face of death. She doesn't consider herself a heroine. But many others do.

Legendary CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour says in a September 2009 CNN documentary that she felt quite intimidated by the “larger than life” Moth before she met her in Sarajevo in the early 1990s.

(Click here http://www.amazingwomenrock.com/role-models/margaret-moth-journalist/cam... to watch CNN's three-part video tribute to Moth’s life)

Moth, says Amanpour, was extraordinary in how she looked, dressed and behaved in those early days. Describing how Moth, who wore black almost exclusively, behaved in the field, Amanpour says:

“You know what? She sleeps with her dark combats boots on…”

In the compelling three-part CNN documentary, one colleague after another describes Moth’s incredibly brave (some might say foolish), behaviour in the midst of conflict and war, where she did whatever it took to film what was happening ‘up close and personal,’ often with complete disregard for her own safety.

On July 23, 1993, Moth, who was with colleagues in the back seat of a vehicle, all of them on assignment, was hit in the face by sniper fire.

“I don’t remember the actual shot,” she says. “But I remember it must have knocked me over…. It felt like my face was falling off… I was trying to hold it on. I knew I had to keep calm, and that I had to stay conscious. If I go unconscious (I said to myself), I’ll stop breathing. I knew that.”

As it turned out, the bullet had ripped apart Moth’s lower jaw, a good portion of which was gone, along with the base of her tongue.

Amanpour paints a picture of what Moth looked like in hospital:

“She was completely enveloped in bandages, her face was unrecognizable, she was SO badly wounded. And the only thing I recognised was her hands. She had very distinctive, strong hands….”

“I remember distinctly,” says Amanpour, “that it was while we were visiting her (in the hospital), that the assignment editor from the international desk called, and he said to me: ‘So Christiane, are you ready to go back to Sarejevo,?’ and I thought, apart from how insensitive can you be? I’m in this room with my colleague who’s been wounded beyond recognition, and then I said, yes….”

At this point, the war-steeled Amanpour stops to gather herself. It’s evident that she is overcome with emotion, and is fighting back tears.

“I said I’d go back, and I know to this day,” she says her voice cracking, “that if I had not said yes then, I probably never would have gone back and I probably never would have done this career, but I said yes because I couldn’t say no…”

Read into that statement what you will.

After more than a dozen surgeries to rebuild her jaw, Moth returned to the Sarajevo war zone in 1994, wearing – she tells her colleagues jokingly in the film – a bulletproof vest.

Two and a half years ago Margaret Moth was diagnosed with terminal cancer, a fast growing cancer of which she is not afraid. She underwent treatment, but it hasn't changed the outcome, about which she appears to be comfortable.

In September 2009, she went into hospice. There’s no doubt she continues to be fearless now, just as she has been her entire life: forging her own path in the crossfire, bravely, with humour, clad in black and with the utmost panache.

I’m absolutely certain she’s not crying as I write this. But I am.

Thank you Margaret Moth for a courageous, adventurous, brave life well-lived.

See the full blog post of this story here: http://www.amazingwomenrock.com/myblog/the-margaret-moth-story-fearless-...
And the three-part CNN documentary here: http://www.amazingwomenrock.com/role-models/margaret-moth-journalist/cam...