The Sea Reminds Me of the Ebb and Flow of Life’s Emotions
Bittersweet memories of holidays at the ocean
In an essay published on 24 December last year, I expressed my desire to “organize a trip to the coast for my adorable, yet now fragile husband before it’s too late.”
It never happened as he passed away two months later on 24 January 2024.
It’s taken me almost a week to settle down and write about my love for the sea because every time I tried, I cried.
Most of my holidays and adventures at the seaside include my soulmate, as we’d been together for 39 years — more than half my lifetime. We always headed to the sea for our getaway from inland Johannesburg.
To ease my way into sharing those memories, I shall begin with my holidays on the coast when I was a child in England.
Perhaps by then, my heart will calm the wild emotions whirling in my head with gentle waves of joy and loving remembrance.
My paternal grandparents had retired to Saunton, a village two miles from Braunton, on the North Devonshire coast, probably before I was born.
My dad, brother and I, together with our three cousins and aunt, would descend on Willoways House for a week or two during the August holidays, to enjoy the sand and…
