Inspired by the Illustration Friday quote:"The return makes one love the farewell". - Alfred de Musset
Farewell and farewell and farewell, a thousand shadows of goodbyes and an equal number of joyful chimes of return, that is how I remember visits with my Grandmother growing up. They ended with a hand wave behind glass, a car window, the front step, and the sure knowledge of a warm squeeze in greeting when we next met.
My Grandmother created beauty, tending her garden where ripples of beauty spread out from her hands as seeds, scent, a bouquet, and the farewell of fall, waiting, longing, patient for spring and the return. The ripples she sent out are spreading still, long after she has left us, in a corner of my garden, a shock of black-eyed-susan, rhubarb in another making beauty of taste for another generation as she is remembered, the treats she made for us as kids now being made for another set of children.
