"Why are you so obsessed with an old string of beads with no apparent function?" you may ask.
The beads are fascinating, but it's their context that intrigues me. And there are two clues. All I remember of the occasion when Isabella gave them to me was that she said they were given to her by a grateful German prisoner of war. That's what caught my imagination, this crossing of twin boundaries - the one between enemies and the other between genders.
But did I make that up, invent myself a story? Why should a German prisoner of war be grateful to her? I can't remember anything else of that day, although she gave me the second clue at the same time. She gave me her medical instruments. For Isabella had been a doctor and she had served in France, Malta and Egypt during the First World War.
And that is the tale I've been tracing - who was this barrier crossing Isabella, and where did her beads come from?
The beads are fascinating, but it's their context that intrigues me. And there are two clues. All I remember of the occasion when Isabella gave them to me was that she said they were given to her by a grateful German prisoner of war. That's what caught my imagination, this crossing of twin boundaries - the one between enemies and the other between genders.
But did I make that up, invent myself a story? Why should a German prisoner of war be grateful to her? I can't remember anything else of that day, although she gave me the second clue at the same time. She gave me her medical instruments. For Isabella had been a doctor and she had served in France, Malta and Egypt during the First World War.
And that is the tale I've been tracing - who was this barrier crossing Isabella, and where did her beads come from?
No comments:
Post a Comment