It struck me this morning as I carried out our refuse waste that grieving never really stops.
Late 2016, my partner Wim and I carried Wilma in one, and Prince in the other carrier to the waiting car of the pet emigration services. It was a beautiful sunny spring day in Featherston, a perfect day for them to laze in the sun outside. Instead, I had them cooped up and handed them over to a stranger, although this lady was a lot friendlier than the guy who had picked up Wilma ten years before in the Netherlands to leave for New Zealand.
The friendly lady explained they would be well looked after at Wellington Airport before leaving the next day. We also got updates from the cats’ stopover in Singapore and arrival in Amsterdam.
Not everyone’s a traveller
As you can see from the photo above, tabby Wilma was not a fan of travelling while adventurous Prince wanted to get out of the carrier. The same carrier that I just put on the roadside kerb to be collected by the rubbish collectors. On the photo, the carriers still look good, but I assure you that they were in no state to give away. Although I do hope that someone comes by and picks them up.
Emotional
All of a sudden, holding their carriers again had me in tears. Wilma sadly died in 2019, Prince at only 8 in 2018… What is it about those carriers that made me so sad again? I think it is because they are also attached to an emotional, intense time of moving country twice. Even though we ourselves made the choice to leave both times and did it on our own strength, emigration is a big life change. Even though you love your new country, as we both do, for me, especially, New Zealand is on my mind and in my heart every day as I spent my first 10 years there as well.. I am both Kiwi and Dutch.
I am also thinking about Wilma a lot as I am finalising Wilma’s Tulip Field Days. It’s a prequel to My Name is Wilma. Beta-readers are going through the prequel. After they get back to me, I will edit again, and then it goes to my editor. The cover’s already finished.
It will be available as a free ebook for subscribers to my email list. Feel free to register below if you’d like a copy when it becomes available.
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