The 20th of April this year marked the second anniversary of Ann's passing. She was a relative I discovered through the restoration of Balintore, and it is one of the joys of my life that we bonded instantly and became great friends.
Last Sunday (24th April) around 10 of her relatives drove over from Glasgow to put flowers on her memorial bench at the castle, which I had installed near the site where she had her ashes scattered.
In the typical Balintore farce fashion, the relatives were hammering on the castle's front door for around 30 minutes, but I did not hear them for such is the size of the building, so they headed off to a memorial lunch at the Airlie Arms in Kirriemuir without me.
I had been off social media for most of the day, but read their message just in time, so I did manage to join them for lunch - phew! And they bought my lunch for me - many thanks! :-)
My own family never marked anniversaries or left flowers, so this is all rather new to me. However, it is a lovely thing to to do. With her family visiting and her flowers installed, it is like Ann is lingering about the castle with a stronger presence than usual, which feels comforting. And indeed before her daughter-in-law contacted me about the visit, I had been thinking of Ann with no notion that the second anniversary was imminent.
Sometimes, it takes time and healing to realise how important people have been to us, and my recent thoughts were very much along these lines.
I took this photograph today, and the flowers are still looking good after a week. At some stage I will bring the flowers indoors to consolidate the display as some flowers will inevitably wither before the others. This is very much a metaphor for consolidating the joys that departed people have brought us, back into our own souls.
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| Ann's second anniversary flowers |
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