Olive Mary Smout (nee Peckham)
B: 5th Feb 1922 (Coventry)
D: 6th Oct 2006 (Whitley Bay)
- Wife of Gilbert Smout
- Mother of Richard, Michael & Graham Smout
- Grandmother of Nicholas, Charlotte, Sarah, James and Emily.
This poem was read at the
Servce of Thanksgivng
for the life of
Olive Mary Smout,
St John's Methodist Church,
Whitley Bay
17th October 2006.
CATCHING THE LIGHT
She would be busy, this time of year.
Bottling, preserving, taking care
with the sugar. Generations of sticky fingers
will linger over the legacy of jelly, marmalade,
pickles and jams. Their crystalline jars,
sealed tight, filter the October light
from her world to ours,
quietly retaining the pickings,
the exact boiling point,
the setting at the heart of things.
She would be walking, this time of year
Through the scuffed leaves of Elterwater lanes
and bittersweet the scent of peat and bracken
unfolding from the fell.
The beck rushes through her absence
with its rowdy chatter of stones,
but the 5 o’clock thrush still sings
and doors open to muddy shoes,
the tea, the scones. We would be told
to wipe our feet (and would).
She would be planning, any time of year
the patterns and pavlovas for family and friends.
So we will keep the knitted jackets, the little party dress,
the cushion covers, curtains and the bobbles on the hats.
No patching will be needed,
no loose ends of lace-
the fine tuning of her fingers
meant each stitch would know its place.
In her quiet face now rest the traces of the little girl,
the loyal wife, the mother’s lines of worry and of pride,
the grandma (nearly) always on their side.
As she passes, the last of the Coventry lasses,
the red dahlias flame as fierce as grief.
She positions petals, inspects each leaf,
sees their details as reflection
of the loveliness of life.
She has travelled bravely through this last slow night
and leaves us with chrysanthemums,
the bright rowan, and the evergreen
whose name she would have known.
We will hold her memory up to a higher light,
where God has already found her
gathering windfalls in a garden,
and quite at home.
Elaine Owen
Flowers for Olive at St John's Methodist Church
Whitley Bay