I took time to watch swans
recently. One was hissing at some ducks; long feathers spread out and
purring in the wind like banners. One moved on the backward river tide
alongside my ambling, and we watched one another.
A lady ambled from the other way, watching, and soon we met. She
looked up and I smiled. “So gracious,” said she, gently and with such
feeling that I knew exactly what she meant.
"Perfect,” I replied. She stood by me and we watched in silence as if
we already knew each other well enough to do away with pleasantries.
“There’s a place up the coast I go to see them,” she said after a
while, “plenty of them there like you’ve never seen. They’re filling it
in though; say it’s dangerous, but they’ve been meeting there for years
long past. People just want to build there, no doubt.” Her eyes seemed
smaller then and she looked at me as if certain I would share her
disbelief. “God please that the swans come here,” she said, as if He
was right there to hear her suggestion.
“That’d be lovely, wouldn’t it?” I said.
“My husband passed away last year.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, and I was; something in me smarted at the pain in her voice.
She turned peaceful though, and looked further away. “He used to
take me to a place when we were young, near where he was from. There
were many mother swans there carried cygnets on their backs in spring,
all tucked inside the feathers. I’d never seen it,” she went on,
frowning as if incredulous at the beauty of that memory. “I took his
ashes there, thinking he would wake up every morning and see… silly I
know… because he’s… I thought he’d have liked that.”
She told me where the place was, and I said, “I know it; I was born
near there. It’s beautiful.” Perhaps it was a patriotic tone in my
voice that made my understanding unbearable for her, as her eyes half
filled. She put her hand on my arm, smiling, and said, “God bless you,”
then walked away.
To receive the open trust of
a stranger is a blessing in itself. It was a seemingly insignificant
meeting, but symbolised a wider unity. To feel unexpectedly at ease
with someone, to feel that inexplicable bond which all of humanity has,
filled me with hope.
Sumangali Morhall
March 2005
