Dónal Donohoe

The light fades as the sun sinks behind the hills and the temperature drops, I look out across the land as far as I can see but my thoughts travel further to where she lies in the frozen ground. It has been frozen since she passed away so suddenly and so peacefully, she had been out for a walk with her friend, had joked with me on the phone but by the end of that day she was gone forever. I turn to face the empty space left by her passing but it is too soon to face the memories or to look to the future, there is just the present and the snow and cold. Somehow being snowed in here on the hill for days at a time over the Christmas holiday and the New Year seemed to suit my mood, leaving me isolated from the rest of the world to come to terms with the loss on my own.

Some days there was so much ice on the road up the hill that it was impossible to drive up or down it and today there was so much snow that trying to make it to the nearest town for supplies was out of the question. The weather forcast is for the cold spell to continue so making it to town tomorrow might not be possible either and if this episode is to be repeated regularly every winter whether as a result of climate change or not then I may need to store up extra supplies of food and fuel every autumn from now on to be prepared for such eventualities. But a thaw will come and after that so will the first signs of spring, perhaps then it will be time for all of those memories, so many of them happy ones to return.