farming | Course of Mirrors

I had several themes in mind to write about, but a vivid dream last night brought life to 2 special friends in my heart.

Hope and Franz were our farming neighbours in Somerset, in a hamlet where our little one was born in a 17th century cottage we rented. This hamlet had only five properties. We arrived insisting on a home birth for our son. Sensational, I still marvel how we made it happen, arguing that home births were very normal in Holland 🙂 Well it happened, in mid winter. Through frozen roads, the police brought in the midwife, Sister Heney, to help us with, by then, a rare home delivery, before her retirement. She called him her sow-baby and sent him birthday cards until she died.

Our little one had five exceptional years of country life, and everyone in the hamlet adored him. Hope and Franz were most loving, and special.

Franz had arrived on the farm as German prisoner of war. Hope fell in love with him. How could she not 🙂

For some reason they could not have children, so they became second parents to our son. Hope used to have dreams about Tibet, a culture I feel strongly connected to. Her dream was to become a journalist, impossible given her responsibilities and circumstances, yet she had an incredibly inquisitive mind.