The stone house

Painted white inside

With white windows

Had five rooms

Two bedrooms, 

Dining room

Library 

Sitting room.

The kitchen and bathroom were separate rooms behind the house.

The front windows had a view over the bay.

The yard that stretched for twelve acres wide,

Ended in a path that cut down to the water and sandy beach. 

In that house, Ingrid had raised four children

Loved a husband and lost him

Seen her eighteen birthday

And now, on a rain-soaked, grey October day, saw her 80^th.

She began the day at five, watching the rain drops run down her Smokey-glassed windows

Watching the fishing boats in the harbour

With their lights disappearing out of the bay.

She had already set the fire in the kitchen and in the sitting room

Now she had bread baking, clothes drying and the net that she was mending 

Set up across the timber grid. 

It was a cold, quiet day; the sound of the rain on the roof kept her company

She rubbed her hands together and felt how dry they were, like autumn leaves

She did not need to go into town today and looked forward to resting in the afternoon.