"LASSIE"

"LASSIE"



Once upon a time there was a little girl who was born and raised in Aberdeen, Scotland. She was a wee lassie and the apple of her father's eye. Oh how he loved to gallop home on his horse to see her playing out in the yard or waiting for him on her pony.

But little lassies grow up & one day she wanted to wed at an early age. Much to his consternation she refused to listen to reason and left home to wed her beau. The lad was in the Military and took her far away from home at the age of seventeen. It broke her father's heart and he never was happy again.

When her husband died of fever she went on to marry again and had children, some of whom died from the raging typhoid or tuberculosis.

Again she remarried, never being alone for long but always retaining her independence and perserverance. She arrived in America with high hopes and when the ship carrying her to Nova Scotia docked, she was ready to finally settle down.

Life was hard back then and yet she always seemed to have plenty. Shelburne was blessed to have her voice, her strength and her wisdom. She owned and managed a Bed and Breakfast. What she didn't have was her father's love and devotion. Letters across the sea took many months and she waited patiently but eagerly for his reply.

Her sister wrote and the words burned into her heart: "Our dear father died 8th of December last year. His last words were of you and you should know that he left his violin to your care. He also requested a lock of his hair be saved for you. Shall I mail them to you in Canada?"

That night she took pen to ink and replied "With a heavy heart I ask that you kindly mail me our father's violin. I should be so grateful if you would include a piece of his hair. You should know that I long for the day I take my eternal rest and can ask for his forgiveness."

She was exactly like her father but she did not recognize it. Politics and religion played major parts in her life. Widowed again, she spent most of her time visiting her married sons and their families. She'd crack her whip over the mare's back and gallop through the dense woods before dawn to arrive at their homes in Barrington by dusk.

One day later in that same year, she was given a package from the mail carrier. It was obviously worn and had spent many days and nights on the ship. She carefully laid it on top of the quilt of her feather mattress. It could wait until after supper.

Carrying the oil lamp into her bedroom from the small kitchen where she had just dried the dishes, she sat down beside the parcel. It was long and heavy and with both joy and sadness, she undid the heavy wrapping.

The violin lay on her aproned lap and made a sound before she had a chance to even caress it. The bow was wrapped separately and had a sealed piece of tape around it with a note that said "To be opened only by Rebekka".

She trembled and gently removed the tape. The bow was a simple one, well worn from her father's hands. She caressed it close to her reddened cheeks; it smelled like him!

Tears began to form and she quickly dried them. Wait, there was a note!

She read aloud her father's words: "When you are reading this I will be dead. But my love for you lives as long as you breathe. Embrace life for it is a gift from the Almighty. We shall meet again, my lovely lassie. Your loving father."

Sobbing and trembling, she then opened the small envelope holding his hair. It had turned white! She had anticipated it would still be the black color it was when she had left his house many decades ago.

That night, the sounds of a soft but sweet violin could be heard by the locals who lived the closest to her log cabin. They listened to the mournful sound and remarked how it sounded beautiful but like a funeral march.

The very last thing she saw before blowing out the candle beside her big, soft bed was her dear father's violin. He would never know how it meant the world to her to have his forgiveness and love. And as her own hair turned as white as snow and she caught her reflection in the glass, she smiled. She was and always would be, her father's daughter, his lassie.