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Will you take tea.

Photo copyright: Rochelle
Photo copyright: Rochelle

Carefully the kindling was sorted then arranged to supply the best fire, then fresh water delivered to the blacken kettle. You will take tea, won’t you Micheal. It would be my pleasure Marfa. Then a special blend of fragrant black tea’s was mixed, and lemons sliced.

Whilst Marfa carefully prepared our tea, my eyes wandered around the familiar room. Only the two golden Russian jardinieres by Karl Faberge remained on display to illustrate her true identity. As usual the tea was fragrance itself. Once I did know the secret of its blend, but time dulls the memory.

Footnotes:
Genre Memoirs.
Word count 100.
The name used is fictional to hide the true identity of a lovely individual, sadly no longer alive. At the time that I met this lady she was in her late nineties, whilst I was a young community nurse.

This Post Has 49 Comments
  1. Thanks for sharing this precious memory, Michael.
    I really liked your title too. I had a very sweet Scottish friend named Joyce, who would invite me over for tea. This story reminded me of her.

    1. It certainly was; in some ways we take tea too much for granted. About fifteen years back I was lucky enough to visit and stay at a tea plantation near Kandy in Sri Lanka, it was a magical experience.

  2. Very mysterious Michael. A connection with royalty is hinted at, but don’t worry, will respect your sentiments and not pester you for more details, even though I want to 🙂

  3. Such a simple scene and I feel it conveyed so much. The sweet fragrant tea makes the Marfa seem just as sweet, and the jardinieres make her true identity so intriguing. And then there’s the fact about your years as a community nurse which has my curiosity piqued 🙂 Lovely story and I feel I miss Marfa too.

    1. Thank you Fatima, I was fortunate to work in several differing fields of nursing. I do feel reluctant to write about that time.
      Very occasionally I find ways to share snippets from that time.

      1. I can understand it must be difficult to write about the suffering you might have witnessed and it’s clear you are protective over your patients still. I look forward to reading more of these snippets.

    1. Thank you Patrick, plus sad memories. It was and is the nature of being a nurse. Very occasionally I feel that it is right to share some of those times, but in a heavily censored format.

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