Saturday, November 17, 2012

And There Were Other Mourners


A smallish bus arrived close to the place of events.

Out stepped a few people who seemed to have prepared themselves for the sight of the worst: the death of their near and dear ones. They wept with tears, but did not cry loud.

As they each stepped closer to diverse dead bodies, one of them started to sing "safely gathered in". A few of them, but not all joined in.

Somehow Susan felt that was true about the Seven.

When they had finished, another man started "dies ire, dies illa, solvet secla in favilla, teste david et sibilla". The others joined in.

And, for a moment, Susan felt perfectly at peace in her heart.

Why she recalled a Stone Table, where she had cried with Lucy - who now lay dead herself - over a dead lion, when she heard the words "tantus labor non sit cassus" she knew not. She did not know Latin. But she did recall a morning breeze that ended mourning and a Stone Table with Aslan gone.