The Parc Monceau – Claude Monet – 1878 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Oldest Daughter – 06/01/23
…and the spring day was beautiful, sunny, bright, so good to leave the house, and, even in the black of the mourning clothes, she was conspicuous among all the lighter colored clothes of the spring season, because of her stately posture and walk, and with a carefully designed, practiced, and appropriate smile of still painful grief, she was greeted with reserved gestures and greetings as befitting her station…but no one asking about…anything, or anyone and so…being out finally in the sun in the park she was still alone. For it was difficult…and hard to lose her mama, always a comfort, a hand and voice that had always stayed the onslaught of time, and sickness, and even death…until the end. And now with papa… Her heart ached for mama, and now for papa who…who…now that mama was gone, spent his days and now some nights if they were not able to coax him down from the garret, the small garret facing north that unknown to anyone…for some reason no one knew he had fixed it with a small desk and chair and books and papers for writing… Everything he said he now needed, and wanted to live…yes, probably old Jacques had assisted him and perhaps Madeleine, long time servants…so it is… And she asked for another chair and a comfortable pallet to be made within the room for papa to lay down if he must, and another table for when she visited with tea for both. And she asked, “Papa what do you write?”, and without stopping his scribbling at the desk, he said stories, poems, and so many things for mama when she returned and she…she turned to sip her tea and hide her tears and she then asked if she could read them also and he said when he finished and that he wanted to finish them, if he hurried, by the time mama returned…where was she? And now…every day she returned to the small garret facing north with tea and sandwiches and sweets to talk of mama returning and asking if he would read some of his writings to her and he would always say…when mama returned…
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