The tale of Miss Cindafred
Miss Cindafred lived in a parish many crow flights away and in a different age when dinosaurs and woolly mammoths ruled the earth.
Cindafred had been widowed young and had three burgeoning children. Her options were limited and she resolutely worked at least two jobs that I knew about. She was also frenetic in her work for the local parish. Once I foolishly made the suggestion that she might actually enjoy life a little bit more if she just slowed down a bit. My ‘wisdom’ was declined and I re-learnt that things are not always as they seem.
All this changed when her father died suddenly and unexpectedly. He had lived interstate and so there was a myriad of things to organise especially around the welfare of her children. But with the long distance to travel and the time away in a different albeit sad dimension, she had to do ‘enforced breathing’. She didn’t have to go to work for a couple of weeks. The children were competently and lovingly looked after by a good friend. And for a precious few weeks, it was as though CindaFred was in ICU on a ventilator. No one could get in to see her and someone else was doing the breathing for her. She didn’t have to do anything much, except let other people look after her.
Now while I was deeply sorry for Cindafred, something good came out of this and she came back to live life at a much more measured pace. This mortality business had rattled her and taught her a few things. In a sense, Cindafred came back as a new woman.
So ends my tale of Miss Cindafred who taught me that it is far better to breathe gently, slowly and in a measured way now than to find yourself in ‘ICU on a ventilator in the future.