Artist of the Week: Penelope Casey (paintings from her series ‘Fiji in Sepia’)
In the Fiji Islands, there is a small town called Savusavu. Here, the dawn of every day is marked by roosters crowing. Their announcement begins as early as 3 am, long before the first light has come over the green hills. “Another day is upon us,” they crow to the neighborhood. “Awaken your senses.”
There is an older man who walks along the bay each morning as the sun rises. According to a young woman in the community, he never used to walk. Now, he never misses a morning.
The man and his wife were married for many years. They shared the joys and sorrows of life side by side until his wife became very sick. She was ill for a long time, and her health gradually declined. With humility, the wife accepted that her lively days would soon come to an end.
As she prepared for her final day, the wife became concerned for her husband. What would he do after she was gone? How would he care for himself without her? Together they had weathered many storms and rejoiced in their ever-deepening love.
The wife was quite clever, and thoughtful too. She promised her husband that after she passed on, she would come back as one of the stray puppies that run by the road, weaving in and out of the jungle. She told him that she would wait for him on the roadside and that he must walk along the bay each morning to find her.
Since his wife died, the man walks every morning, looking for the stray puppy and ready to bring his wife home again.