Maggie Quinn Art – Spring Garden of Artists on Chaleur Bay

by Margaret Sharon Olscamp Dunlop NB Canada Wed. June 12 2024
I’m thinking about grandmothers this morning. I’m also thinking about what it means to be growing old. I might think about grandfathers too except that I had only one and he wasn’t especially a great influence on me, except perhaps in terms of sadness. I believe I inherited his deep sense of sadness. I used to think it was a religious thing, his quiet pensive ways.

Yes, he went to church every morning. Most mornings, when we lived in the big house I would go with him. I don’t recall that we ever talked about it and I don’t believe that he tried to coerce me into going. It was my own silent decision. I still recall our walking together, not speaking but it was a comfortable silence. During wintertime it was always dark outside and under the streetlamps I could see the millions of diamonds scattered on the snowy path, sometimes even drifting down from above.

Funny how I started off thinking about grandmothers and switched over to grandfathers. I guess it’s because its hard for me to imagine one without the other. I’m wondering if that might be my idea of what the Chinese concept of Yin-Yang is all about. Like the old song says “You can’t have one without the other”.