Could she still be there? They met her two years ago, when they drove up a side street off Route 20 looking for a place to park during the Brimfield Fair. (See http://marashgirl.blogspot.com/2012/12/rain-snow-and-native-americans.html) "Let's see if we can find the same house." And Marash Boy, the in-house Indian with his unbelievable sense of direction, found her. This is the street, he said, and that's the house, and there she is! But this year there were no signs, and she was alone -- her daughter who had been at her side two years ago had died of a serious illness. Her friend next door who had been with her last year had macular degeneration and could no longer get around so had moved to an elder care facility. But there she was, alone, accepting this year only $3 for parking a block from the Brimfield Fair. Do you remember us? they asked. Of course, she answered. You told us about praying for the health of our loved ones whenever we find a bird's feather on the ground. Yes, she said, and I still do that.
When I find a feather, I wonder who has fallen ill. You know, when I find a large feather, I know it means a serious illness. I take the feather inside, place it in a vase or a bottle, and pray for the healing of the ill one. I pray harder over the larger feather, for the larger feather represents the greater illness, and less insistently over the smaller feathers which represent the less serious illnesses. My brother died at the beginning of World War I, and then my father moved out of the city -- bought a farm in West Brimfield. I graduated from Springfield Tech in 1945. My family is from the Musqueam Indian Band located up by Canada. Grey Wolf wanted to marry me, but I didn't like him. I married a man who was half Italian and half Irish. We loved each other.
The threesome chatted a bit more, and then Marash Boy and Marash Girl bid farewell to the woman and wandered down the hill to the Brimfield Fair . . . Take a look at the photo below and comment. What are the chances that, very soon after leaving their Musqueam Native friend, they would find this bottle of feathers at a booth at the Brimfield Antiques Fair? (The only bottle of feathers they saw during their whole tour of the fair!)
[More photos of the Brimfield Fair tomorrow!]
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