31 Oct 2025 ~ UNEXPECTED

A few days have passed since my visit to Stonehaven. It’s still dark outside, and I’m lying in bed looking through the photos I took when I was there. I’m playing around with different angles and possible compositions, zooming in to examine the details in every scene.

What is this? It’s weird that I didn’t notice it while I was walking through the garden. I thought I took pictures of every quote and fun fact that were written on the rocks, wood, and whatnot that were placed strategically among the plants and upon the trees.  But this one, hidden between the roses, did not catch my eye until now. 

I have found the personal touch I missed at the back of the menu. It was written on a notice board in the garden. It read:

“A ROSE GARDEN”

“In loving memory of Sarah Mac Namara Cloete, a mother so caring, kind, thoughtful, self-sacrificing, loving, supportive, devoted, and brave. A mother like no other.” 

What a moving and unexpected discovery. What a reminder of how unexpected and brutal change can be, how change can be caused by adversity, and how adversity is as inevitably part of our lives as change is.