Thursday, January 09, 2014

Shoe, bereavement and warped



One of my favourites from the archive. Not the first time that I have posted it here, but I make no apologies. The shoe which for several months remained on a ledge behind a shoe shop, has  long been removed. I am glad that the photograph survives.

Bereavement is a word  which, together with all the paraphernalia of death, I used when ever possible,  to steer clear of. Confronted with the fact and the word I now accept it for what it is. We had two telephone lines Heidi and I because so many of her regular calls were overseas to her daughters and friends. Now that the time has come to close her BritishTelecom account, her daughters tell me that BT was able to assist her with the help of its "bereavement arm".

For the last few weeks the rain beating on to our front door, which faces south west into the prevailing wind, has warped the wooden frame. The lock wants to do one thing, the frame another. PMR has left my  arm muscles ineffective The result when, on my own today  for the first time, and I go for a walk I cannot  on my return manage to open the door. Happily the gardener opposite is on hand to manoeuvre the offending aperture. It's good to be indoors.

2 comments:

marja-leena said...

That photo really is worthy of being printed, framed and exhibited in a gallery - along with many others in your archives, Joe.

Rouchswalwe said...

Oh yes, I think so, too.

Winter's icy grip has wrenched our front door out of whack so that the wind enters at will and we have to wrest and wrangle with it.

I found it very sad to close the accounts of my family members who left too soon. The conversations with the business-like voices at the other end of the line always left me wrung out like a wet rag.