Lucky Dip Number 22
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My Mother's Death
It was the unexpectedness of the enquiry about her health that broke my resolve as my mother lay within hours of her death, else I could without tears have told those friends I had been sent to inform. The question came as I entered the vestibule of the church and I went back outside and wept, while a girl who was passing said disparagingly to her two friends "what's the matter with him"? The unexpected happened again as we sang, for I was enfolded as though by a presence without form and by a comfort from deep within - and there were no more tears as I endured the pain of parting from my mother. During that night I heard my father pass my bedroom and go downstairs sobbing softly and when I was informed in the morning all I said was "I know", before leaving to sit a pre-university examination. |