Two Stories

Snapshot and Lament

Two Stories

This week, I had 2 pieces of microfiction published in Briefly Zine. Both stories are for and about my Dad, the beautiful John Eric Thomas Eldridge, who passed away on Christmas Eve 2022.

My Dad was right there when I was born. I arrived early and the midwife thought it was a false alarm so, because my Dad was an academic, the joke in my family was that he was on p97 of the Penguin Book of Childbirth when the midwife finally appeared at our home. I feel very privileged to have been there alongside my own daughter when my Dad died. It was painful, hard and deeply sad, but my Dad gave out so much joy throughout his life and I hold on to this. Always.

Snapshot

I was a bonnie wee lassie growing up in Glasgow. My Dad taught me not to be sectarian when it came to football. Hatred doesn’t mix well with anything, he said, passing me the ball in a moment of shared joy. I was a bonnie wee lassie with a Dad who showed me how to live.

Lament

Bagpipes are traditional at a Scottish funeral, but I’d never buried my Dad before. Melodies aching of bleak hills and glens left me standing, alone, by a cold mountain, scanning the empty landscape to find him there again.