Dedication

With love and gratitude to my husband, Martin, who always praised my writings and encouraged a pursuit of photography, having bought me my first camera – a Ricoh CX3- back in 2011. Right up until the last, he was on the look-out for a good Rolleiflex, despite all my protestations!

Martin died suddenly on 7.10.2018. In trying to cope without my companion of the long road, I’m following the Bard’s advice – to commit some of my loss to writings, tagged Martin

There is also solace in the poets who have encountered such loss and eloquently put it into words: Here is C.S. Lewis with his ‘Joys that Sting’

“To take the old walks alone, or not at all,
To order one pint where I ordered two,
To think of, and then not to make, the small
Time-honoured joke (senseless to all but you);”

“To laugh (oh, one’ll laugh), to talk upon
Themes that we talked upon when you were there,
To make some poor pretence of going on,
Be kind to one’s old friends, and seem to care,”

“While no one (O God) through the years will say
The simplest, common word in just your way.”

And Celia Sandstrom’s ‘Standing up in a Slim Boat’

“Freed from not knowing where you are
I’ve traded the nagging worry for a shroud.

In the slim boat of each day, I stand
wary, look across the still surface.

Balance is all. The undercurrent, strong.
Not the peace I hoped for, this calm.“