My Godmother Cecilia

Age did not dim her humour nor dull her demeanour

Like an exotic bird with very tangled feathers that just landed

She walked about swathed in clothing that was always a riot of colours

In the '40s world, she broke every rule

And was a woman with university degrees, utterly cool.

She argued with scholars, taught girls and boys alike to think

 And she yet burnt every curry she ever made and regularly flooded her kitchen sink.

Her shoes never matching or her jewellery coordinating, she clumsily blustered through every family gathering

Caring two hoots for the etiquette of the female gaggle that assembled at any given family wedding.

But her mind was sharp, her courage true.

With a hammer in hand when grace was required

She was my heroine growing up, albeit of chaos

She was very fierce when the need arose, was my godmother Cecilia

Unassuming at most times, and yet somehow, she still managed to inspire, me at least!

But I learned many things from her, my Godmother Cecilia

She wore chaos like fine perfume and her voice unapologetically shattered the silence in every room.

Her hands were always ink-stained, her tongue and mind never refrained, she showed me that a woman could pick and choose both a career and a man

She raised her kids while she chased her dream, a scatterbrain with a laser beam pointed right at her targets and every single one of her whims

Refused to gossip, to bow, or to conventions bend

Idle talk was never her trend.

She broke the mould the society tried to fit her in and still somehow found peace and success

She showed me that freedom is in fact just a quiet release.

My godmother Cecilia

There was this time she arrived at my cousin’s wedding

Bright eyed, shod and clad, bejewelled and altogether her ensemble most delightfully mismatched

The women tutted, the men didn’t notice, but my godmother she settled herself on an empty seat

“Where is the bride?” She enquired

“Dear me, how you have grown” she exclaimed

“Look at you, all shy and demure, not at all like the wild girl who scaled the wall in the dead of the night to meet her paramour”

The bride scowled, the bride’s mother in frustration howled, but my godmother Cecilia, she simply beamed

“Wasn’t life so exciting as kids?” she continued, “the lessons we learned, the tricks we played, the laughter we laughed, and the midnight snacks we consumed?”

“Did you pack your trousseau then, with memories about all of these?”

The ladies were incensed, how dare she dig up old uncomfortable tales they said

But my godmother Cecilia, she did not understand

“Aren’t our experiences what made us?” she declared

To the gaggle of children who were the only ones amused, she said, “so, what’s for the festive lunch then?”

We lined up, my godmother Cecilia and I,

 To heap our plates full of fancy food

Then we stuffed our faces with food and our souls with warmth

As the ladies watching us dabbed their faces delicately with their handkerchiefs laced with perfume while they politely picked at their food

She belched contentedly and declared “Isn’t life just so good!”

She continued to proceed through life, her children grew up, their spouses were welcomed to the family, her grandchildren were born, held and adored

She remained through all that the unpredictable oddball of the family

Age did not dim her humour nor dull her demeanour

As I flew through my own life, she was always the beacon for my flight path

Many years later, much married myself and with two young ones in tow,

I found myself back at a family wedding and made a beeline for my godmother Cecilia

Still the same riot of colour, shod and clad, bejewelled and altogether her ensemble most delightfully mismatched

Her eyes peered at me from behind the glasses, her once jet-black hair now white as snow

Wincing at the arthritic pain which did little to dull her beautiful soul

“Isn’t life just so good?” she declared, my godmother Cecilia

And now, in my own life when challenges arise, I only have to think of her

My godmother Cecilia

Her voice comes back from deep inside my past

Whispering gently “isn’t life just so good?”

And suddenly, everything seems alright!