Dear Reader,
Loss. To lose one’s mate after more than
half a century is a devastating thing. And, yet I sit here trying
to compose a tribute to my husband, John Gaumond. “Just
do the best you can,” he would say, when I was rooting
around for a subject each month. These days, torrents of language
pour out, as family and friends console me or there are stretches
of silence when I think I’ve lost language entirely. While
I believe that the routine of creating this blog has kept me
honest as a writer and artist, today is a challenge. But I will
do my best, as John would advise, but I am missing my first
reader.
John Gaumond enriched the lives of those who knew him: father,
brother, uncle, friend, teacher, mentor, photographer, writer.
Two years ago, at my urging, he reluctantly composed a list
of what he would want included in his obituary. With one important
update (the publication of his poetry chapbook Finding the
Words, Kelsay Books, 2024), here it is: https://obits.callahanfay.com/john-gaumond.
His obituary photograph was taken by poet John Hodgen at a duo
poetry reading seventeen days before he died. He loved the image
of himself, surrounded by books, reading his poems, so I chose
it for our last look at an extraordinary man.
Eighteen previous blogs that ran
under the title “Stop, Look, and Think” asked you
to study a piece of artwork before reading the explanation below
it. Thinking about and comparing your reactions was my way of
asking you to give space to your own feelings/responses before
“knowing” anything about it. John’s photograph
seems like a fitting way to pay tribute to him today.
Here’s the story: John took this photograph
on the day we took a train from London to Oxford. We took our
time wandering through the grounds of Oxford University’s
colleges, admiring the gardens and architecture and contemplating
English history with each turn. This image became one of John’s
favorites, and now it is up to us to guess why. A door within
a door opening to worlds of learning? A door that opens to a
future? A door opening to the unknown?
