The Gift of Handwork My beloved grandmother gave me gifts to guide me on my life’s journey. Her main wish was that I would practise a faith “because it would be a comfort to you”. And in my own way I work at that every day, and it has become my foundation. However what I am remembering here is that she also taught me to prize handwork, both as a survival skill and a steadying pleasure. Her own needlework came …
THE GIFTS OF FOLEY MOUNTAIN The interview was almost at an end. It had been an intense hour of revisiting the 30 years my husband had been Supervisor at the Foley Mountain Conservation Area overlooking Westport, and where we and our two sons had lived in the little supervisor’s house there.“So, what is your most treasured memory of the time you were at Foley Mountain?”How to choose? It was an impossible question. Memories swirled, some too private to talk about.But, …
JUST THIS MUCH After my husband’s death, once I could think at all, I became afraid I might have become schizophrenic. As I began this new life on my own, so often my emotions were all over the place. It was frightening to jump in a minute from the relief of tranquility to desperate unhappiness. And of course, with Barry gone, during these erratic shifts it felt as if I had nothing to hold on to. Most often, what caused …