In memoriam

I visited a very magical garden today. Terraced into the hillside of a burn in the Scottish Southern Uplands, it is the vision of a Nepalese family and specialises in Himalayan flowering plants. It was raining and unseasonably cool for late May. Wind chimes tolled and prayer flags flapped to and fro in the stiff wind. Every now and again a thinning of the cloud let through more light. The papery petals of blue poppies were suddenly backlit with translucent radiance. It was beautiful; a place where I imagined nothing bad could ever happen.

And then something bad did happen, something quite dreadful. I received a text message. The partner of a dear friend had died suddenly during the night before of a heart attack. He was still a young man, whom I knew well and liked very much. He and my friend had been married a little over four years. Their wedding had been a very special day of celebration. It would be hard to picture two people happier together.

I sat for some moments among the raindrops and the blue flowers utterly abandoned by words. Hours later I am still struck dumb by this inexplicable, random act of violence that has torn into the life of my friend and his family. I can barely begin to imagine their grief. In the absence of words I offer pictures; blue poppies in a magical garden, bowed by the blows of summer rain, then lit up as the cloud breaks. I offer them to the memory of Jim and with my strongest love and hope for Ian.

'Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.'