Pytor’s Tune
Once upon a time I bought an alarm for my front gate. I was monitoring the comings and goings of my late wife whose dementia made it dangerous for her to be out and about unattended. It offered an amazing selection of tunes to play, and I settled on the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy because my wife always liked The Nutcracker. So, she got a big kick out of it when the little receiving unit played its tune to tell me someone was coming or going, a little bit of happiness in the house.
Lately, however, the unit serves chiefly to tell me my son has left for work or come home, give me a heads up on the occasional visitor, or let me know when a package has been delivered. Although yesterday afternoon it started playing almost constantly. At I first I thought there was cat or a bird about, but then I went out to check. Turns out, it was butterflies. The lantana growing in the front gate garden is in full of blooms and covered in butterflies. One bloom was right in front of the motion detector and every time a butterfly landed it sang its little song in the house.
Even though I thought it was sweet, I moved the bloom because while The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is nice, having it go off every 30 seconds as a little electronic jingle is a bit distracting. Still, it was pleasant to think of my wife’s sweet smile when she first heard it and how much pleasure that simple little jingle offered to a woman who once enjoyed taking her daughter, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter to the ballet in Houston at Christmas to see the full ballet and luxuriate in the music of Tchaikovsky. Memories brought to me by butterflies.
John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Tale