It is great hearing my friend from the USA John Shuster talking about his trip to England. He and his charming wife Sally are real Anglophiles! They even have two cats "Jane" and "Austin," that is pretty English!
So every day John posts another of his holiday pictures onto Facebook, and marvels at his finds, and it is quite wonderful to hear him wax lyrical about the ordinary everyday things that we take for granted here!! He shows pictures of scones and stone cottages, English tea rooms and 'Full English breakfasts"! All of those things that we don't even think about or notice any more. As if we are walking around with blindfolds!
It put me in mind of a lady who was a very dear friend of mine she lived next door for many years until she died aged 99 and three quarters!
She was the most delightful English lady and was even born in the Edwardian times, and so was a true "Edwardian Lady "!She was called "Amphyllis" another very very old Edwardian name.
She had never married, was what used to be referred to as a "spinster lady" was incredibly intelligent, got her MA in the days when women were hardly ever educated let alone got a masters!
She lived alone, had an enormous amount of friends, she was interested in everybody and everything and her house was always full of flowers, or cards from people who also loved her as we did.
She had a lot of visitors, always gave to most charities that ever needed a donation, and was kind to everyone .
As she got a little older, and occasionally got unwell, we tried to look after her a little more.My husband (a great cook!) made her soup every day after she had a chest infection because we were concerned that she should at least have one nutritious meal a day.
She loved it and she loved him! So he ended up making her soup every day for nearly fifteen years!!
What made her so special also was that she was blind! She had a tiny bit of residual sight in one eye, but very little. Although she loved to hear about Gez's paintings, she couldn't actually see them, so I had to describe them to her, much to her delight!
She asked me to describe many things to her. When Sadam Hussein was in the news she asked me to tell her what he looked like (she listened to the radio all day!) when I did, she "Oh yes, that's JUST how I imagined him, the archetypal bully!"
She asked me what the little lime tree at the end of the garden looked like, and when I described it she said"Oh yes I remember when it looked JUST like that!"She knew how everything would look at each time of year. She was not depressed or angry at her loss of sight, she simply got on with it!
When I had to think about how to describe something to her it made ME look at things, REALLY look- in order to give a good picture for her. I looked at everyday things with new eyes!
What a gift that was, and how easy it is to forget these lessons!
So Thank you to John Shuster for reminding me of that lesson! I have had a great day today. looking around me and imagining I have to describe things for Amphyllis's eyes!
As I look out of my office window, the Acer is turning a little pink, soon will be red, the elderflower tree has shed it's leaves, and the grass is covered in that speckled yellow.
The pond is clear and I can just hear the waterfall, I can see the fish have been breeding well, there are many more this year, beautiful colours.The only waterlilies left are the creamy white ones. Still quite a lot of butterflies around.
The sky is bright blue with just a few clouds, and the windows of Gez's studio need cleaning! The Hydrangeas are fading (I quite like them like that)
and the vine leaves are pale yellow ready to fall.
My treatment room has hops around the windows, they could do with a trim but they give a pretty light when I am inside.
That was just a quick glance out of the window, but I think it has given me so much joy that I should remember to take that blindfold off and keep looking at everything around me with Amphyllis's eyes!
Beautifulx
ReplyDelete