Thursday, 18 March 2010 -- Day 88 (101)

I saw my first Robin today. There is hope! My grandmother always said that the Robin has to be snowed on three times before Spring actually comes. Not sure if there's any meteorological reasoning behind it, but it seems to ring true most years. So in honor of hope and warmer weather and b/c I taught a fast track all day, I watched one of my favorite "feel good" movies, Under the Tuscan Sun. There's a continuing scene where Francesca looks down from her balcony to see if the old man who always brings flowers to a nook in the wall will return her greeting. Tonight seeing him do this repeatedly made me cry. Normally I just think, "How sweet," but tonight I saw my dad in that old man. Dad went to the cemetery for the first time today as I mentioned in last night's post. The dirt had sunk down so much that my brother said he feared he could peer down into the grave and see the vault. Dad was upset about this when I talked to him tonight, and he had made his complaints known to City Hall and to the Cemetery Board of the City Council, of which Mom was a member. I doubt they can or will do anything at this point, but hearing my father's passion in tending to Mom's grave nearly broke my heart. This is the eternal love that Francesca has been seeking; the kind where a man leaves flowers in a wall or fusses over dirt b/c it's the only way he has left to outwardly show his affection. The kind that when she finally sits quietly and contentedly, the lady bugs land.