Monday, 30 April 2007
Tapestry II: Timothy Grass
By Judith Taylor of Not Dead Yet!
PREAMBLE: Sometimes the tapestry of life's memories conceals sharp needles of sorrow for missed opportunities, for unfinished business or for useless and heartbreaking tragedies.
Not long ago I found an old photograph of an American medical student I knew in Geneva, and hardly had I finished writing about it, when I opened an old wallet and out fell a piece of Timothy Grass (Phleum pratense). Now it’s hard to believe, but I really think that this dried and pressed remnant has been with me for some 50 years, since the time when I knew a young man called Timothy, and picked the grass for his sake.
I was staying with my cousin in the Clee in Shropshire, where she lived with her husband on an old farm. It was no longer a working farm, but they had a good friend Tim who worked a sheep farm in a neighbouring village. Ever attentive to my welfare, my cousin determined that I should meet this young man, as she was sure we should like each other – and indeed we did. We became very close, and several times I spent a few days on his farm, while I was visiting my cousin. It was there, in one of his fields, that I picked the piece of grass that bore his name.
Tim was dark haired and good looking, sturdy and tough, but slightly handicapped by a foreshortened arm, due to a clumsy forceps delivery at birth which had damaged his shoulder. This did not seem in any way to interfere with his competence as a farmer however, nor did it make him any less attractive in my eyes. But alas, it may have been instrumental in his sudden death at an early age.
We went our separate ways eventually, and each of us got married and had a family. It was some years later that I heard from my cousin that his life had been lost, when he swam out to sea to help some people who were in trouble in rough weather. Tragically, the attempt cost him his own life, and a good, kind, courageous man was gone.
So I shall not throw away my piece of Timothy Grass.
Tapestry I: 50 Years to Say Goodbye
Tapestry III: Cartoons and Romance
Posted by Ronni Bennett at 02:00 AM | Permalink | Email this post
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What a sad end to a good man. I look forward to the rest of the story.
Posted by: kenju | Monday, 30 April 2007 at 05:32 AM
Interesting that you would have kept the Timothy grass all these years. That act certainly speaks to the significance of that time for you. Sad that he lost his life as he did. I'll look forward to the rest of your story.
Posted by: joared | Wednesday, 02 May 2007 at 02:45 AM