36. Digging up Grandmother
One of my cousins calls me and says “They are digging up Grandmother today… Do you want to come and see?” My dog Bella was dying on the floor.
“I’m not sure I can make it,” I said, loathsome to leave Bella without the company of a human being who could understand her pain- but I did so much want to see Grandmother again after more than thirty-three years- after all the antibiotics she took- she could still be intact.
So I gave Bella some painkiller drops and hurried down to the cemetery. They had already opened Grandmother up when I got there since the odour reached my nostrils even from the car park. Of course I had my camera with me…
“She’s still intact!” my cousin called out, his voice muffled by the mask.
“Oh good!”
“ What do you mean ‘good’? Do you know what that means?”
“That you can’t put your mother in the same niche left empty by Grandmother…”
“Well, I’m not putting her back in that niche!” He said adamantly. “The arrangement was with the cemetery undertakers-“ a couple of workers with spades and wheel barrows in orange overalls standing beside the coffin- “in the eventuality that Grandmother could not be cut up, that we dug a hole in the ground and put Grandmother there until she rots and my mother can then be put into Grandma’s niche.”
“Brilliant!” I said, as the workers lifted up the white zinc lid for me to peer in.
“You’d better put this on,” he said handing me a surgical mask, “You could catch typhoid if you got too close.” And I did have to get close- I had to take a picture.
The cloistered room was bleak, so I put my flash on- Grandma was on the floor. I had to take my glasses off because the mask made my breath steam them. The workmen urged me to hurry, for my own safety. I stood above, behind Grandma’s head and took a snap, but as I couldn’t see a thing I just made a guess as to where her face was. The minute body was all black, her hands crossed one below the other, as I had left them thirty three years ago. She looked like a bronze statue. But her hair was beautiful- it had grown, almost blonde.
“I’m not sure I can make it,” I said, loathsome to leave Bella without the company of a human being who could understand her pain- but I did so much want to see Grandmother again after more than thirty-three years- after all the antibiotics she took- she could still be intact.
So I gave Bella some painkiller drops and hurried down to the cemetery. They had already opened Grandmother up when I got there since the odour reached my nostrils even from the car park. Of course I had my camera with me…
“She’s still intact!” my cousin called out, his voice muffled by the mask.
“Oh good!”
“ What do you mean ‘good’? Do you know what that means?”
“That you can’t put your mother in the same niche left empty by Grandmother…”
“Well, I’m not putting her back in that niche!” He said adamantly. “The arrangement was with the cemetery undertakers-“ a couple of workers with spades and wheel barrows in orange overalls standing beside the coffin- “in the eventuality that Grandmother could not be cut up, that we dug a hole in the ground and put Grandmother there until she rots and my mother can then be put into Grandma’s niche.”
“Brilliant!” I said, as the workers lifted up the white zinc lid for me to peer in.
“You’d better put this on,” he said handing me a surgical mask, “You could catch typhoid if you got too close.” And I did have to get close- I had to take a picture.
The cloistered room was bleak, so I put my flash on- Grandma was on the floor. I had to take my glasses off because the mask made my breath steam them. The workmen urged me to hurry, for my own safety. I stood above, behind Grandma’s head and took a snap, but as I couldn’t see a thing I just made a guess as to where her face was. The minute body was all black, her hands crossed one below the other, as I had left them thirty three years ago. She looked like a bronze statue. But her hair was beautiful- it had grown, almost blonde.
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| I just made a guess as to where her face was |
Goodbye Bella
As I left them to bury grandma again, but this time without the coffin, I dashed back home and saw Bella breathe her last. I too then started digging a hole in my garden, behind the wall, and buried her before she got too rigid. I closed her eyes, folded her head into her paws and made her as small as possible- then said goodbye.
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