My elderly neighbor called me on friday evening to ask if I had an old key that might open their cellar door. Somehow the door had gotten locked and the key disappeared. I could tell she was very worried that someone was in the house. I told her I would come over the next morning. I have an old key on my keyring that I purloined from an old Italian villa (15th/16th century) that was being gutted. She and her husband were very concerned as they have lived in the house for 30 years or so and this had never happened. They also had a propane tank down there that had to be refilled for their stove…all in all, they were worried.
We tried my key, it didn’t work. I had brought a metal ruler that was flexible but that didn’t work. The husband kept trying and all of a sudden, the door opened, like a miracle. Everyone was shocked….then they looked at me and said it was all because of me! They were so happy and relieved, they wanted to toast me with a glass of port, but it was 10am. They really though it was me! The key was on the ground on the inside on the floor. Strange, I thought I felt a mischievous ghost rush by me when the door opened.
-----------------------------
I had been somewhat tending the grave of my friend Noulin in La Colle. It is in a walled in cemetery that is all stone, all tombs with a small chapel in the center. His father is buried there and his brother all in the same tomb. My friend Fred had a stone made with his name and dates as the family wasn’t going to have one…we all chipped in. I can’t stress how sparse it is…just white with a few things on top, a poor man's tomb. There is a small box for flowers. It was a grassy mess and I brought some tools to clean it out a few months ago. It is lovely there in the sun and has an amazing view…you can see St Paul and the sea. I had cleaned the whole thing up and put some blue marguerites in a pot and some succulents, Someone had put a little bird atop the name stone. I had brought a little squirrel too. I took the dying plants, cleaned them up, watered them and did the best I could to make it look nice. I was going back every 2 weeks or so to water and clean up, but, with my knee and life interfering, I hadn’t gone for a month or so.
I stopped by the other day and everything was gone…all the plants were gone…it was bare. The bird and squirrel were still there but no flowers, no plants. So strange. The family had no flowers at his funeral. Fred had made a small photo of Noulin put on a stone that they were going to put on the grave as is custom in in europe, but the wife told him no! so I wonder if they stripped the tomb of the flowers.
I will go back this week and add some plants that I have here and see what happens.
I wonder what the thinking is behind refusing flowers…the wife yelled at me about bringing him anything when he was ill at the end. I had brought him a picture magazine of the war in Algeria as he was in that war, but I had brought him National Geographics and fishing magazines too…all with pics to look at and no need to read….she was angry at that…what is she thinking? Fred is very upset about the photo…perhaps sad is a better way to describe it.
It seems so controlling and mean.
No comments:
Post a Comment