Mom's tree

Its a beautiful clear morning in Cape Town today, I am watering my garden and my 'mom tree' is looking spectacular.

I planted it from a cutting from home. I have two in my Johannesburg garden, also grown from cuttings which I took from my mothers garden many decades ago.

It is so interesting what pulls us back to the past and I take pleasure in watching these trees flourish.

I have a view of the tree as I read my letter below which is full of excitement and pride for my family, Dad had been elected Major of Howick and Clive had won a top achiever award from his company.

The 'I knew already' is curious to me, I describe myself as lacking prescience, so to read that 'at sometime just after 10pm I had a very strong feeling about Clive.' does not resonate, but I even offer proof to Mom.

What did delight me though is he got to come and visit us in Marly, we did some touring together and I felt less isolated from my family and from home.

My intuition about Clive and his family has since seriously let me down and the decades since our sojourn in France have been filled with shocks and have created much pain for me. So I will quietly water my 'mom tree' and breath deeply.