An emotional time around Casa De Bit tonight.
Longtime readers of these pages will remember that a couple of years ago my mother in law passed on. Among the other consequences of that happening was that we inherited number of pets… among them a canary. The bird was aged in the extreme for it’s kind, even then… When we were forced into the decision of placing Mom into a home, we took the bird into our home. For nearly two months Harrigan… for so Mom named him… made hardly a peep. He ate well enough, bathed, etc. and looked healthy enough, and occasionally ventured out of its little hiding spot to examine the small world around him. But that was all. We figured he’d been missing Mom, and that he wasn’t long for the world.
Then came the awful day that we learned Mom was gone. We went to the hospital to deal with that painful scene, making the trip for the final time, that we had made so many nights previously in the last four months or so. Needless to say, we were shaken by the event. When we came home from the Hospital… a weakness in our hearts that only those who have lost a loved one can know, and wondering how we face the world the following day, the little bird decided to note our arrival with the loudest and most beautiful song I’ve heard any bird of its size utter. And it was the first time we’d heard him sing in, well, months. We were astonished.
Donna at the time said, that she could see in her mind’s eye her Mom smiling as the bird sang. I said nothing, but took it as a reminder that for all the pain in the world, that joy still exists. Indeed, there was no better description of his singing, then a joyful noise. And a part of both of us, I’ll confess, considered the idea more than once… that he was singing for Mom.
For the next several weeks and months, one thing that could be depended on in our house was that Harrigan would be singing his heart out. It saw us through some very rough times putting smiles on our faces where they otherwise had no reason to be.
This evening, some two years after Mom, Harrigan passed on, at the age of ten… as I say, aged for his kind. So, as I say, it’s an emotional time around here tonight.
He was just a small thing, providing us with what could only be called an intangible. Yet, I say without irony, but with a sense of wonder… that it is often the smallest and most intangible things that make the largest difference in our lives.
Bye, Harry…. and thanks.