Nothing lasts forever. Why didn’t I spend each day telling her how much I loved her? I hope she knows that it was only when I was with her that I was truly happy. ‘Mummy, stop daydreaming! You promised that we would have fun and that we would play on the strawberry swings and that we would….’ Mother laughed. She hadn’t been doing that a lot lately. She kissed Maya on her forehead. ‘The strawberry swings it is then,’ said mother. Maya ran off shouting, ‘STRAWBERRY SWINGS!’at the top of her voice. As she ran the wind began to sing with the most ethereal of sounds. If she had looked back, for just a second, she would have seen an unfamiliar face. Maya would have seen emptiness in her mother’s eyes and tears streaming down her face. As I watched them play together I felt like a mere candle burning in the sun. ‘Mummy, where are you?’ Maya shouted. In an instant she disposed of her morose face, put on a smile as if she were simply applying make-up and her eyes once again radiated love and warmth. ‘Coming.’ Maya’s finger slid across the swing, acquiring a fine layer of dust. She wiped away the dust, revealing strawberry after strawberry after strawberry.They did not look a day old. Hmmm… I guess he was right. He told me that maybe we are just meant to do this: receive life to give life and give love to lose it. Maya shrieked in delight, as mother pushed her on the swings.
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