As Time Goes By........

When I was doing my writing course (a lifetime ago now) I recorded this story and mentioned to my friend that I was going to post it in my original blog. Of course I never got around to it lol and so during the week she rang me and scolded me for not having done anything about it lol. I promised to post it here as soon as I located the file on my computer. This is dedicated to you Mary.
I have a very dear friend named Mary. Her family and mine grew up together in the Blue Mountains long before progress and development found the road to drive up there. She is of an age similar to my mother however, over the years, she has become a close and trusted friend of mine. We are the type of friends that can go more than a year without ringing and then once we do make contact the time simply falls away.

Mary married Ray. Ray was a gentle soul who died after 45 years of marriage to Mary. They had seven children, all grown, married with children of their own and most of who have moved interstate. The eldest daughter moved overseas to Britain in the late 70s to live and the youngest daughter Francis passed within two years of being born. I went to school with the eldest daughter and followed her trials and tribulations through a divorce and a second marriage, she now has two children. Even after my family moved to Sydney we all kept in touch, attended one another's weddings and sadly family funerals too.
When a very young handsome Raymond first courted Mary, he surprised her with a painting of the area where they picnicked and over the years it has proudly hung on the lounge room wall in a place of honour and pride. He used to tell their children of how he fell head over heels in love with a beautiful young Mary who had sparkling green eyes and a smile that would stop a 1940 Chevrolet Pullman car in the middle of the road lol. At church each Sunday he would sit one or two seats behind her family so as he could sit, watch and dream about her. Ray once admitted that it took him a month to work up the courage to ask Mary’s father if he could call on Mary and perhaps escort her to lunch. Mary’s father made him suffer for three days before he relented and gave his consent lol. I still smile today when I think back to the time when she told me that story. Likewise, Mary tells of a dashing Ray who seemed so charming that she was the envy of all her girlfriends when Ray arrived at the family home asking to speak with her father lol. It certainly was an era of respectful manners, etiquette and good personal conduct. I guess those were the days of dreamy romance.

Now apparently some years ago an art dealer befriended one of her sons and when visiting, asked about the painting to which Mary proudly told the story behind the picture. Then decades later, at 70 years of age, Mary decided to cull many of her possessions and downsize to a home unit on the cast near Maryborugh in Queensland. Word soon got around and several dealers then approached her to purchase the painting, not because Ray is deceased but because it represents a time up in the Blue Mountains which is long forgotten; the painting is of historical value as much as an art piece. It depicts the area in its natural surroundings long before the lower Blue Mountains was developed. At first I thought OMG that painting represents a lifetime with your soul mate; how could anyone expect her to part from it. However, when I thought about Ray later that night I could almost hear him telling her to sell it and make yourself comfortable for your remaining years. So recently I rang her and asked what has she always wanted in life that she has never had and was amazed at her reply. “I have always wanted to travel and see the world and as I have gotten older I am not coping with the winter cold and the summer heat. Both extremes have knocked me about badly over this past ten years. My body and limbs have become arthritic and ill-shaped”. She then told me that as much as she would love to have those opportunities that the problem was the painting was not a momentary item; it wasn’t just a "thing" or a material possession. It is an intricate part of her memories, her personal story, the greatest and only love of her life. As a 70 year old woman she can actually look back and isolate her life with Ray as the most beautiful experience she had known. The painting represented many memories. Both she and Ray picnicked to this little area in Glenbrook in the late 1930s when the roads were made of dirt. The little creek in the background was the area where he first held her hand. The wattle tree was the very spot where he plucked up enough courage to ask her to be his girl. He had polished the stones collected from under the water and covered a small photo frame with them and behind the photo she kept his letters. I remembered the first time that Mary showed me the photoframe. Her hands held it as one would hold a treasured possession; her elderly work-worn fingers softly stroking the shining stones, her eyes alive with memories and her voice trembling as she told their story. Mary could remember the smell of the eucalypts and hear the songs of the currawong birds during the summers there. She has long since treasured cool lemon tea, which they took with them on their picnics. Yet she says that when the summer heat reaches 40 degrees and she feels her old body sapped of its strength, she wishes for air conditioning. When she looks through magazines or watched a television program about Venice or Paris, she is saddened that she will pass through life and not have witnessed such magnificence.

Several times over the years we have talked on the phone and in the background one can hear recorded songs from the old days. The affection in her voice is gentle as she relives her life with Ray. I guess unconditional love does that for an individual; they can travel through time piggybacked on that love. They can return to days gone by that will sustain them though years of loneliness and solitude. I doubt Mary will ever sell her painting, one could not put a price on its emotional value but I suspect there will be a lot of family members pooling their money to buy an air conditioner for Santa to deliver this year.

And when people cite the divorce rates and comment that marriage is a waste and never lasts these days, I think of couples like Mary and Ray, and my in-laws who have not only had fulfilling marriages but have carried that love into their twilight years. We should all be so lucky.