I was asked recently to write a very short love story and I thought to share it with you all. Love comes in all shapes and sizes and sometimes we don't venerate love until it has been swallowed into the mists of time.
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Looking in the Wrong Direction
She stood there, leaning on her cane, smiling all the while, patting her granddaughters’ blonde heads, insisting she would see me in no time at all, my six months in London would fly, just wait and see. My dream, her dream for me, had come true: writer-in-residence at Bartford College.
I shepherded my children on to the flight, telling them to turn and wave, wave at their grandmother, but my eyes were on the east, anticipation seeping into my bones, my mother already a distant shape in the fog of my past.
It was four months to the day that the phone call came. Her ulcerated leg had been a fiction. The cancer even back then at the airport had been eating her alive from within.
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You fulfilled your mother's dream for you, always remember that!
ReplyDeleteI'm just catching up after a week of virus hunting. Losing a parent is an event I have yet to endure. I know it won't be long before I do, as my father is 94 and my mother 87. That they both live (separately) in Britain is an added complication.
ReplyDeleteTake heart from Grannymar's comment: at least you fulfilled your mother's dream for you.
GM:
ReplyDeleteThe story is based on fact but circumstances changed - but the message very powerful nonetheless.
I don't think I would have her courage.
XO
WWW
RJA:
ReplyDeleteLongevity is certainly in your blood! Wow!
XO
WWW
It's a wonderful but sad story, yet full of courage. I hope I never have to face it.
ReplyDeletewhat an impact for so few words - incredible - you made an Irish man's eyes water in Delhi
ReplyDeletewhat an impact for so few words - incredible - you made an Irish man's eyes water in Delhi
ReplyDeleteA sad story. How often tragedy and triumph come together. But as Grannymar says, a dream also became reality.
ReplyDeleteWWW, you have such talent for words... I am hoping you will one day publish some of your work... I would want a signed copy of course! :)
ReplyDeleteMore can often be said in three paragraphs than in a whole 300-page novel - and you did it, WWW!
ReplyDeleteLump in throat rose as I read it - I experienced something quite similar myself.
@GSW:
ReplyDeleteMe too. I don't know if I have that kind of selflessness.
@Conor:
Thank you. Delhi? Oh my you're posting from the road, I have to go stalk you!
@Nick:
Yes always the sweet with the sour, I'm glad I got that across.
@Nevin:
I will be editing over the next few months so will keep everyone posted on the progress of the short story collection.
@T:
Isn't it true though? Under-writing is so much better than over-writing.
Thank you!
XO
WWW
All has been said - that I thought.
ReplyDeleteSuch an impact on me, with such a few words. You "touched my heart"
and the eyes are full of tears.
OWJ:
ReplyDeleteThank you so much and welcome to my ether-nest!
XO
WWW
So sad, and at the same time: wonderful!
ReplyDeleteSo often one would just not appreciate certain tiny (great) gestures in the very moment. The more (?) precious they do become with hindsight; that is if we are so lucky to remember.