The Ghosts of the Moors

Wandering the moors, every so often we’ll come upon a seat, placed there in memory of someone.  Some of these benches have become our regular haunts.  ‘Let’s visit Vera’, I’ll say to Joss.  Or ‘Let’s go and sit with Jackie’.

The seats always command lovely views and are often in sheltered spots.  They’re good places to pause.

The strange thing is that these women who I never knew in life have become acquaintances of a sort.  Sometimes we just sit together; sometimes I’ll talk to them.  Their names are now familiar to me and I hold them in affection.  The benches that bear their names are markers on our journeys about the moors and part of my personal landscape.

I like it.  I like to know that even though they’re no longer walking the fells themselves, these ladies are still meeting folk and playing a role in people’s lives.  I’m glad of their presence.  And occasionally, I wonder whether one day I’ll become a ghost of the moor myself.  A benign one.  Smiling on girls out walking in the same way that Vera and Jackie and Jose and the rest smile on me.

Comments

[danielle]

<3
This is such a wonderfully sensitive way to "be".... One day, I would love to walk the moors, visiting!

[jeand]

I love the blogs you write about your walks on the moors. They're so descriptive of an area that few of us have the opportunity to explore. I feel I'm walking there with you sometimes. Thank you.