Ashes (cinzas)
Today my (adopted) son asked me where I wanted to put my ashes (cinzas) when I died. He was anxious to know the precise place. (Of course I chose somwhere along my cycling route!)
But, as I told him, it's a funny thing. My mother's ashes still sit in a box on the mantlepiece (prateleira sobre a lereira) in my sister's house in London. They have been there for five years because we (four sisters) cannot think of where to put them. It isn't that we can't agree where to put them (unusually - as we disagree about most things). And, as my mother was an atheist, we have no feeling of responsibility on her part about where we put the ashes. But we would be much happier and more settled if we could think of somewhere to put them.
Our problem is that we don't have any feeling for where she belonged. And we are still waiting to find out. So many people in Portugal ask me where my "terra" (land) is. Where do I begin when my mother is still on the mantlepiece?!
Tags: identity, terra
But, as I told him, it's a funny thing. My mother's ashes still sit in a box on the mantlepiece (prateleira sobre a lereira) in my sister's house in London. They have been there for five years because we (four sisters) cannot think of where to put them. It isn't that we can't agree where to put them (unusually - as we disagree about most things). And, as my mother was an atheist, we have no feeling of responsibility on her part about where we put the ashes. But we would be much happier and more settled if we could think of somewhere to put them.
Our problem is that we don't have any feeling for where she belonged. And we are still waiting to find out. So many people in Portugal ask me where my "terra" (land) is. Where do I begin when my mother is still on the mantlepiece?!
Tags: identity, terra
posted by bev trayner at 9/11/2004 09:58:00 PM
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