A sad day ...

It's been a difficult 4 days. Had to bury Pumpkin today. I found her on the floor of the bird room last Thursday morning, having gone during the night.

She was an inspiration, and like all other birds I've ever known, sweet sweet sweet. For the last several years she was blind in one eye. I believe her injury was the result of a fight with another bird, but I'm not sure. Found her bloody and injured one night after work. She healed slowly but surely and pulled through. Her flight was not as strong after the injury as before it, but she managed quite well within the confines of the bird rooms, both here and in NY. And she held her ground well.

I will miss her. Her 'home' was one corner of the seed platform, a place she found more comfortable than a perch, most assuredly attributable to her previous injury. There she has been every day for the last 5 years (maybe more, I've lost track) as I enter to change the seed and bring fresh water. Never one to let on that she may be a little weaker, she'd feign ruffled feathers and fly over to the window perch while I replenished their food.

Sweet Pumpkin.

Death is hard. The day I lost Pumpkin I was scheduled for a day long class at the quilt shop and almost didn't go. It took me the whole hour of changing the bird's food and doing dishes and getting ready, to decide that my best bet was to go, and if it became too much I could gracefully leave early. It was good that I went. ...

There was a dear woman working at the shop when I first arrived last year. She was always a pleasure to greet when I went in, helpful and congenial. A sweet soul. I saw her last this summer after she had had a heart attack and by all appearances was on the mend. Only last month I went into the shop to learn that she had passed away, having suffered a series of grave health problems. She wasn't very old. It seemed that one moment she was with us, and then she was gone, so suddenly and unexpectedly.

I discovered her portrait hanging on the wall of the workroom last Thursday morning as I walked in for the class, along with some of her quilting work. It was a memorial and tribute. As soon as I saw it I knew, and asked her to greet Pumpkin as she arrived. It brought some deep sadness, but a bit of peace.

Pumpkin is buried up near the trees by the stone wall.

A hard week.