Blog 96 - Christening

It is nice to run a corollary blog to yesterday’s tale. I wrote of my dear Tahitian friends, happily married for many years with two children. I had first hand news of the children, a boy and girl, when they were very young taking my own daughter to see their secret waterfall amongst the ylang-ylang trees....now, can you believe this? As I was mid typing that sentence, the phone rang and it was that very young boy now in full adulthood, married, a father himself ringing to tell me he, his wife and daughter were leaving England next week to set up home outside Lisbon, Portugal. The hair at the back of my neck stood on end.

I had already taken the photograph of my scarf and the other of a ceramic cross and flower brooch which I wore at their daughter’s christening. I had not seen them for months but thought it was a nice follow up to my story of his father’s original voyage across oceans to reach Tahiti.

I ironed the scarf some weeks ago and it has hung on my stair bannister until I felt it was the right time to wear it. The last time I wore it was at the christening. That was also the last time I saw my friends, the grandparents. It is a beautiful long scarf, satin silk, pale pink with brown edges, two large roses in deeper pink in the centre, one at each end. Just before the phone call, I had photographed it on a carved neck rest from the South Pacific Marquesas Islands.

The church service three years was in Fulham after a convivial party on the river near Imperial Wharf. Some guests walked between destinations. My Tahitian friend and I were offered a lift, but alas, it was not in the gold Ferrari!

You will appreciate the importance of flowers in Tahiti. My small token to mark the occasion was my handmade fabric flower brooches with a gemstone heart which I gave to the close family members. I was wearing one myself at the christening.

Some years earlier I had attended their wedding in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat in the South of France, travelling there with their Mexican best man.  What a nice thought...he was now godfather to their daughter and had organised ceramic crosses to be made in Mexico, hand decorated in different colours for the guests, with their daughter’s name and christening date on the reverse side.

I was amazed at their news today. Maybe, I should decant one my husband’s bottles of vintage Port to wish them well or shall I wait for a glass of Lisboa Vinho Regional should I ever manage to visit?

Busy Bee, Scarf Face!

Blog 96.