https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436533
(In Public Domain)
Fourth Sister – 10/04/21
…and taking off her old garden working shoes was not always so difficult, the bending down while sitting on the back porch bench, the fumbling with the untying…about as worse as the tying…with the stiffening and at times painful finger joints and hands…nothing she had planned or wished for when she was in third grade…and why she always picked third grade, she didn’t know, she just did…one of those slightly humorous painful true thoughts, the thought and the image that spanned, oh, how many years?…well, just best not to expend energy in counting them anymore, they are what they are. And the shoes once off…what a chore…she sat back on the bench and gazed out upon her garden, coming along nicely with the tidying up of autumn, before the winter came, and she sighed deeply and looked around for, yes, autumn was certainly almost over, seemingly earlier every year…now every year, for so many now…and winter, yes, was almost here, but certainly…upon her…it was already here, not expecting a blizzard, but more likely a soft covering of snow, gently and even lovingly with care covering everything, like a soft clean sheet descending with grace, like the fluttering of the wings of brilliantly white doves to cover and protect…even one last time, a special blessing, and with the tiredness she suddenly felt, she closed her eyes for just a moment to rest…and thought of her home as a child and her father at the door to tell her to come in for supper, and she did, and he smiled, as he always did, holding open the door…
Lovely and touching. Thanks.