Prologue
The sun sprinkled its glorious rays onto the pure welsh land, promising a day of magnificent sunshine. On a normal day this would be a blessing for the land and the people, on a normal day they would complain about the heat or pack the family up in the car to go to the beach, but today wasn’t a normal day. Today was a sad day. The sun seemed to be mocking the sadness, echoes of ‘How can there be sunshine when our world is missing a beautiful songbird?’ drifted from family member to family member.
The Jones family were in mourning. Today they had to say their final goodbye. Today had a strict routine and that’s all Caradog could think about. He blocked anything else out, it was the only way he would be able to cope. Today he could make her proud. He made sure that everyone was dressed smartly and presentably, he made sure everyone had tissues and was ready for the day, he stopped his little sister from breaking down in a heap of tears, and he made sure Eluned stayed by him holding tightly to his hand…
They all congregated at the small church, each holding their breaths, desperately wanting to just crawl into a hole where no one would be able to see their sufferings. They got through it somehow, clinging on their happy memories…so many to choose from; the strength of family pulling them through the dark river of grief.
When the ceremony ended, the family members were bombarded by ‘our condolences’ and ‘so sorry for your loss’ from complete strangers and long lost family members. This was the hard part. The staying strong for the family, keeping a straight face, striving to find the names of people in amongst the chaos of his dulled mind. Caradog couldn’t take it anymore.
He found a small bench a small way from the patch of disarrayed family members. He sat feet apart with his elbows resting on his knees, hands cradling his heavy head. He sat for a while in that same position. Not really thinking. Just being. He looked up and surveyed his family; all of them together in the same place at the same time. He couldn’t even remember the last time they were all in the same place. She would be smiling right now; he could see her face and hear her laugh. A small smile escaped his lips…the first time he had smiled in weeks…funny that.
His eyes ended up following a white butterfly that must have taken a fancy to the beautiful flowers laid out on the grass. Then he noticed another…then another. Two more appeared out of nowhere and joined the previous two. For some reason he took comfort from those tiny pure white insects, fluttering by with no care in the world.
A little voice came from nowhere beside him, detaching his eyes away from the dance of the butterflies. A tiny hand made its way onto his. Eluned…
Eluned had made her way to him with her little brother in the push chair. She looked at him with sad eyes; he couldn’t bear to see such sadness in such a small child.
“Daddy?” Gethins voice whispered from the push chair “Why is everyone so sad?”
