Twice I cried today, though once was prolonged, on the citadel above Halifax where everything I saw and remembered reminded me of the lapses in my own emotional accounting of what I owed, and to whom. And once, this evening, as we listened to the beautiful Scottish singer, Rachel Sermanni, sing a song I tried to sing when I took voice lessons, “Ae Fond Kiss” by the complicated and extraordinary Robert Burns:
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever!
Ae fareweel, alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I’ll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I’ll wage thee!
All day I have felt those heart-wrung tears, in the Public Gardens, on Citadel Hill, over pizza at the wonderful Piatto Pizzeria, remembering early life with my parents, my brothers, while my patient and lovely husband held my hand.
...Theresa Kishkan 