Our visit today to the Princess Dianna Memorial Playground was like a trip in a time machine to me. After walking through the gates and seeing the Peter Pan themed park, I couldn’t resist climbing aboard the pirate ship. I hung out in a teepee, said hello to an owl, and skipped across some lily pads before taking a rest on a ram. It was quite possibly the best thirty minutes of my day.
Earlier in the trip I learned to distinguish parks from playgrounds, as here in London, usually the word park is used to describe gardens. We’ve seen many beautiful gardens during our time here and each one has been very special to me.
Have you ever met a rose? In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Juliet asks the question, “What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet…” I knew a rose. Her name was Dot and she was the epitome of sweet. She was my mother’s older sister who passed away last year after battling breast cancer.
Family is very important to me and there are a host of cousins, aunts, uncles, a mother, father, sister, and niece back home, living this experience vicariously through me, but my Aunt Dot is not. Even though she cannot see my Facebook photos or read my blog, I wanted her to be with me on my journey so I have worn a pink bracelet in her honor every single day.
The bracelet is simple, just like my aunt. It’s made of pink elastic with a silver circle that with the words “hope” and “awareness.” It also has a charm of the breast cancer awareness ribbon and two “jewels,” one clear and one pink. The funny thing about the bracelet is that I never left the flat without it and when it got too tight on my arm I wore it in my hair. It was the perfect accessory for my “librarian’s bun!” Each morning when I slipped it on it was almost as if I could hear her voice saying “Hey Alesh!” (that’s not a typo—she’s the only person who called me that) and every time I felt like I was coming undone, you know, feeling homesick, hot, cold, tired, frustrated, or lost I could her hear her voice saying “Alright!” which was her signature way of letting us know as children (and adults) that it was time to straighten up or be straightened up. Thinking of her so many miles away from home always gave me hope that things would get better. Thoughts of her also reminded me of how fortunate I am to have this opportunity and to take everything in, thus awareness.
When she died last year, my sister found a poem online called God’s Garden and during each visit to a garden, she felt so much closer to me. Gardens were as much a staple during this trip as was my bracelet. Kaitlin and I even stumbled upon a random garden in France. I was tempted to leave my bracelet behind in France attached to a bridge since it’s pretty gross and germy at this point but I could not do it. I thought of leaving it there because I thought Dot would have liked the City of Lights but I was just a little to selfish to leave her behind. I don’t know what will come of my dirty, germy bracelet when I return to Charlotte, but for at least the next two days it
will be where it has been, on either arm or tangled in my hair, exactly where it should be.Please visit the following sites to learn more about breast cancer or to make a donation to support breast cancer research:
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