I was challenged last week to post 7 days of B&W photos, with no people or comment on Facebook. Here are the 7 days where I will describe briefly where the photo was taken.
Day 1 of 7 B & W Photos – shop on boulevard St Laurent, Mile End, Montreal, Qc.
Peering out the window, she sighs with relief. She is an observer today and doesn’t need to join the crowd across the street. All the hustle and bustle in the shops are stressful enough but to add to this, people circling around for too long to find the perfect parking spot. Heaven forbid today she is not working where she would be normally cutting through this lot to get to her bus for work! Yes, she has been bumped by a car before and the man just looked at her as if she was a vision! Last week a young woman was passing through a STOP sign and the lined area where she was crossing…it shocked her as well and she just stopped in front of the car, gave her the “mother look” and pointed to the stop sign. My oh my, what a way for her to start her work day! It actually shook her back to reality and that she must be extra careful this time of year. Not only must she watch out for ice patches or black ice, at stop signs or even traffic lights, there are always one or two cars that whip by as if she had no business crossing the road at a GREEN light!
Now the holidays should be seasoned with love, well wishes and harmony. But it is rarely so for too many. The less fortunate who may have just lost their job, expectant children wondering what Christmas morning will be like and mothers trying to make a feast with next to nothing are some realities too many are living. It is a time of year many youths say how they dread going back to school to hear their peers boast about their gifts and how they can’t wait for the novelty of that new tablet, racing sled or hockey equipment is over so they can feel more or less “normal” among their classmates.
For some may who may have a little more, the pressure is still on to balance all the gifts fairly among their children. The extra cost of food is quite astounding and certainly breaks the weekly budget for at least a month or so. How did her grandmother do this on her meagre old age pension?!
She sighs again praying silently…
(troiku)
wished upon a star
sundry degrees of joy – rise
with one’s presence
wished upon a star
feels a loving presence
warmth drapes her
sundry degrees of joy – rise
family and friends’ warm wishes
watch her grandson sleep
with one’s presence
and another and another
multiplies the presents
Today I sit thinking of my cousin who is like my kid brother. He lost his lifelong partner last Wednesday. I’m a phone call away and an hour and a half drive away but still… For now there will be children and grandchildren visiting; aunts, uncles and cousins too and friends bringing him comfort as well as a casserole or two. The busyness goes on like a whirlwind for those who grieve and then after the services it slowly stops. Let the grief truly begin. There is no right way or wrong way to mourn, nor is there an expiry date…no indeed, it stays fresh, raw and painful for the time it does…and I know he aches today and will tomorrow. His children and grandchildren will miss their mother and grandmaman who lived life with such passion. She laughed with such enthusiasm and loved with all her heart.
(American Sentence)
Walking through each empty room, he looks longingly theough his liquid blues.
On this day three years ago I had dreamed half the night. The dream of my mother and I trying to save a dying child. Each time I woke up shocked by the dream, I would go back to sleep and dream the exact same scene…3 times until I could no long sleep. I waited until sunrise and called the nursing home to ask how my mother was. The nurse said, « Viens vite, il ne lui reste plus grand temps.»
I no longer had a car since the fall and called a taxi. It was snowing lightly and it was very cold. The sky was so grey and morbid. I talked all the way down with the taxi driver. His mother had recently passed…
She used every means to get me by her side…I will be forever thankful and she passed a little after midnight…
you poked me
three times
I was by your side
one last time …you looked at me
passing to the other side
missing you
embraced by your soothing voice
telling me each time
I love you darling –
don’t forget your Hail Mary’s
never too old
j’suis toujours ton bébé
miss you Mom…
The spring after her mother’s death, a butterfly would greet her daily on her way to work. Walking through the bushes behind the building, she would stop to admire the wild daisies and there on a blossom sat a blue butterfly. She knew it had to be her mother hanging around just a while longer. The thicket served as a rent-free haven. The Landlord upstairs understands how difficult it can be for those left behind. There is no right or wrong way to mourn…just takes time.
grief
surviving a great loss
her mother
wings of a butterfly
kissed her cheek
Tournesol dans un Jardin 