Ailsa Piper’s memoir is a moving testament to the power of the natural world to heal and nurture the spirit. Making sense of the random events of our lives is beyond the capacity of most of us, but Piper shows how a willingness to engage with the small, the beautiful, the miraculous, to brave the unknown and above all adopt an attitude of mindfulness can bring an acceptance we thought beyond us.
When her husband of nearly 30 years dies suddenly of a brain haemorrhage, Piper is utterly lost. She and her husband had a marriage many would envy, sharing an instinctive mutual understanding, a like-mindedness in their love of words and language, acting, books, walking, and an appreciation of life’s simple pleasures. Bereavement in these circumstances is an especially heavy blow. Piper lost not just her beloved husband, but her home, her meaning, herself.
In the demanding process of reinventing a new self, Piper relocates from Melbourne to Sydney. The home she finds near the harbour heralds the beginning of learning to swim, hikes to the lighthouse and along the cliffs, braving the icy waters to become a winter swimmer, befriending other locals and finding wonder in a tiny seahorse, an osprey suspended in the air or peregrine falcons nesting on a narrow ledge high up a multistorey building in Melbourne. Compassion shines through her writing and illuminates her often arduous journey, one which becomes compounded by the arrival of COVID. Lockdowns and isolation mean she can’t visit her beloved father in Perth whose health is rapidly declining. As his last months, weeks and days wind down, Piper learns again all that dying means, to the loved one and those left behind.
In affirming her own connection to living, Piper reminds us that while death means loss, it can be embraced as part of life.
Reviewed by Anne Green
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ailsa Piper’s first book was the travel memoir Sinning Across Spain. Then came The Attachment: Letters from a most unlikely friendship, which was co-authored with Tony Doherty. She has written for radio and theatre, and her script Small Mercies was co-winner of the Patrick White Playwright’s Award. Ailsa also worked as an actor and director for many years and is an accomplished audiobook narrator.
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