Walking Scuttle. A Memory of Pauline, a good friend

Walking Scuttle
by me, about a walk we (Pauline's dog Scuttle and I) took many years ago on a sunny day in Sheffield

Down Scuttle's alley
in the wild inner city
briar rose grows
toads scurry
elder smells spicy
Chip papers underfoot
summer skies over
Scuttle tugs at the tangled root
squats in the clover.


Wherever Pauline went little Scuttle went too, if it was humanly possible.  I think I am right in saying they were both arrested at Greenham Common.  And that is what a dog needs from its person - constant companionship, even if it does mean getting arrested together.

Life was never boring when Pauline was around.   I met her when she and my sisters were involved in the Sheffield Peace Movement.   We all became friends, even though, even then before  I began my Bible study, I was not active politically. 

And she was a very good friend. I can remember after the first of my arthritis-related disasters (fell over, broke my leg, in plaster for months) she used to drive round in her taxi and take me out for a veggie lunch every week - always taking care to find an accessible place.    She was not a taxi driver by the way - it was a de-commissioned taxi.  And nice and roomy too - easy to fit a leg in plaster in.

She and her daughters moved to New Zealand many years ago, and in our expat years, the Captain and I visited them.

She lived right down south in Invercargill - next stop the Antarctic.  The light is fantastic there, with "its shimmerings of Antarctic ice" (I am quoting Janet Frame).  She was as busy as ever, and living in a rambling old house full of books and pictures just as before - the sort of house I always feel at home in.

Then she moved to North Island NZ (warmer climes), and then to Israel (even warmed climes) with her oldest daughter and family.  The last time I spoke to her they were planning to come back to the UK, to the Brighton area, so I thought we would be seeing each other again.

But that is not to be - not this side of Armageddon anyway.     So I hope that Pauline is now sleeping safe in "the everlasting arms", safe in Jehovah's memory, every hair of her head numbered.   And when God wakes her from the dreamless sleep of death, she will open her eyes in an earth truly at peace, an earth ruled by the law of loving kindness.

And that surely is the earth she always wanted to find herself in.   As the Hebrew Scriptures tell us, it will be a joyful awakening.

“Your dead will live... Awake and cry out joyfully, You residents in the dust! For your dew is as the dew of the morning, And the earth will let those powerless in death come to life."
Isaiah 26:19

Your dead will live.  This is a promise from our Creator, the God of Abraham, who cannot and does not lie, and whose every purpose is fulfilled.