
A Haiku for Henry
The telephone rang and Kumiko answered before it could ring twice.
The voice on the other end was urgent. ‘Mrs Marsden, it’s the hospital. Can you get here quickly?’
Although she’d known for some days that this moment would come, Kumiko’s heart plummeted. Henry must be fading fast. She threw her coat on and grabbed her handbag. The car was parked outside. She got in and, suppressing sobs, stopped only at the florists on the corner to buy a beautiful red rose, the closest she could get to a peony, just a day or so from being in full bloom.
The nurse on reception took her to the private room. Henry lay, eyes half closed, the skin on his face like parchment, his sparse white hair matted to his head. As she came into his view, his cracked lips mouthed, ‘Kumiko, darling…’
Bravely fighting her tears, she showed him the rose. ‘For you, Darling,’ unable to avoid the comparison with the energetic young rugby-playing buck whom she’d first met at the party in Tokyo celebrating the merger of their two employers so many years ago.
Henry’s lips crinkled into a near-smile and his eyes brightened. He reached out and their right hands met, fingers familiarly entwining. He mouthed, ‘I love you,’ before his eyes closed slowly as if taking in the final vision of his wife of sixty years, before he gave a deep sigh and was gone.
Kumiko remembered her mother’s words to her on the death of her father. ‘The soul,’ she had asserted, ‘takes with it to eternity the last earthly words it hears.’
She leant over him and whispered in his ear, ‘I love you,’ then in her own tongue and her mother’s, ‘Aishi teru.’
-0-0-0-
Kumiko sat up long into the night and the eastern skies were lightening when she finally picked up her pen and wrote in her diary the words she would later inscribe on a plain card to go, along with the rose, with Henry to his grave.
The songs of my heart
Spirit and soul are with you
Always my Darling
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleBeautiful story, Allan, and written with great sensitivity. I did like your Haiku at the end ?
Thank you Carrie. Sorrow tastes the same in all languages and cultures and, like castor oil, is not one that you ever forget.
Very sweet and so poignant, Allan, I really loved it!
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleThank you Greene, I appreciate your opinion very much.
Very moving story, Allan.
Thank you Margarida. Much appreciated.
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleI couldn’t stop my tears from dripping. Your story is very touching. Well done.
Thank you Lotchie. I was in the same room when I wrote it. Spiritually, that is.
You are welcome, Christer.
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleA sad and romantic story, Allan, very enjoyable to read. It seems to be about an English man, married to a Japanese woman. Are there facts behind the relationship and the setting that you would like to share with us? I love the final, very emotional haiku.
Thank you Christer. You are correct. Inspiration? 23 years ago, in Fiji, I met a Japanese couple. The lady’s name was Kumiko. The meeting was brief but I considered Kumiko to be, without a doubt, the most beautiful and serene woman on the planet. They sent me a videotape of our meeting which, with the demise of VHS lay in a drawer for 20 years. I recently found someone who could convert… Read more »
Thanks for sharing, Allan. Henry and Kumiko would have been very happy to see how you have honored their memory by writing this inspired story. You are right that old memories can be revived and developed into nice, interesting stories.
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleA nice and touching story. I love the haiku that ends the story.
Thank you Thompson; your comments are very much appreciated.
Beautiful Haiku, Allan and a wonderfully touching story.
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleThank you, Linda. I admit to being a bit emotional at the end. Two losses in ten years.
Oh so sad, but a love we all dream of. Despite my misty eyes, I really enjoyed your story and haiku, Allen. A fitting conclusion. Well done!
Thank you very much Sandra. I feel honoured that my story touched your emotions.
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