Everyone said it will be inevitable.

I fought in my heart, I fought with my whole existence to keep this virus out of Jura!
The Virus will not get through the angels standing guard day and night……but it did.

It started with a blocked nose. Sinus? Hay fever? Just the sniffles?
And three days later…he was dead.
And his surname was BOSMAN. Man of the Bush it means.
(I have to share with you. He grew up among the beautiful “bush” of Africa, and lived for 30years close to a river sharing the bush with others. He was a man with an incredible sense of humour, always tricking you, joking, being naughty, being funny, sharing his stories. He jumped into our hearts with one beat.)
The stuffy nose got worse, as his breath was getting short. His already weak heart wasn’t strong enough for what was to come.
The ambulance people came, so very helpful, but the hospitals were full, and he is old, and he has Dementia, and he has a bad heart and they left him.  They left him in my arms.

I stayed with him, laughed with him and even danced for him to the sound of his favourite song of Elvis! He got a bit better, and we sat in the sun, drinking the rays of vitamin D.
I showered his fragile body with warm water, tucked him in for the night and left him in the care of the Night Angel. The oxygen bottles close by…
He was still waiting for me the next morning around 6h00. Weak and confused.
His hands were cold and he asked me to warm them. I held them tight, crawled into his bed with him and tried to warm up his small body. I breathed with him, I tried to breathe for him, in and out, in and out as he warmed up and started to relax.
I kept him close.
Slowly he started slipping away…..my friend slipping through my arms… just slipping.
He opened his beautiful blue eyes with a strange expression. A smile?  Love?  Peace?
I knew…
I asked him one last time.
“Bosman, are you a man of the Bush, or a man of the Sea?
He smiled and answered with the little air left in his lungs.
“A man of the Sea!”
I hugged him close and said…
“Then go play in the waves and wait for me!”
And he closed his eyes, and left me alone in this life on his bed.

This small by stature man left this life, the biggest man I’ve ever known.

A couple of days later we held his Day of Memories at Jura.

But first I must tell you about Theofillus.

The Cat.

This cat loved this man, and chose him to share his bed with and his room and his food and his time.

The big white hearse came to fetch this Man.

The Cat followed the gurney, running all around the squeeky wheels.

As the hearse slowly left,  the Cat followed, still looking for his friend. Only when the vehicle turned the corner, did he stop, only to lie down in the dirt of the road for a while.

On this day of Memory, the Man’s wife came and some friends and our Jura Angels and we walked towards the huge tree with the chairs waiting for us. Out of the blue, Teofilus, the Cat was running around us, heading for the tree and all the time we were remembering our friend, he was up and down the tree, sniffing the candles, being mischievous and funny. ( Just like his mischevious and  naughty friend). And when we closed our eyes to say a prayer of thankfulness for him being in our lives, he climbed onto the lap of the House Mother, the one who gave the Man extra treats and shared the odd glass of wine. A thank you from somewhere….

We took off with his ashes to the beautiful beach close by, to share his last remains with the Universe.
The lagoon was quiet, not a soul, and the water was low, very low, and we could walk on the dry sand with the sea in the distance.
I opened the bottle of champagne, and filled our glasses for our last toast to a great soul.
And as we raised our glasses, his wife tipped the bowl of ashes.
A wave from nowhere came, and swept her almost off her feet. She was soaking wet, as our laughter of sheer joy and a bit of shock filled the echoing air.

It wasn’t enough.

All our shoes were rolled around in the water, playfully just being kept outside our reach. Our shoes soaked by the naughty Ocean.

The water rushed all around us.  The Sea was taking sips of half filled glasses of champagne, rolling them off the rocks …swirling them around in the sand and rocks.

And together only two glasses remained in tact….mine and the Mother of the House’s, nestled in the Sand of the Sea.
And we laughed and laughed one final time with the Man of the Sea.

His final joke.
Salut our friend.

as we play in the waves…..