Time is so important, it is the framework for life as I know it. Many years ago my husband collected watches. When he passed away I ensured that my step son received this collection. All of which signified different times in his life. Memories. I had a small collection myself. Just after his funeral they were stolen from the dining room table. It was the beginning of the desruction of the life that we had rebuilt in our home by the river. Although he was very ill, nothing prepared me for his loss and how I would be treated as a widow and alone. Nothing prepared me. Nothing could have done so. The week of his funeral the calls from the government departmensts started. the rapist and his group of assosciates had decided that having attacked me and sought to remove my children so they could abuse them as well, they wanted money and to restart their attacks. One of us was dead. There was no doubt the next target was me.
One had procured a free apartment with social rents and monthly payments that were almost the same as I had recieved for two children with a family earning 100K per year. I had lost my career and was earning very little and paying almost the same. So the calls started. We had not had the funeral. I was very distressed. I could not really concentrate. Yet I knew that the most important thing was to do as my husband told me. Focus and do not give into the challenges and abuse that were to follow for quite some time.
What has this got to do with the oldest thing I wearing ? Simply that all of y old clothes went. With each move, each rushed packing of my life and posessions, I lost more and more, either stolen or for ease of moving. What this means is that most of my personal items had to be replaced, none are very old. From swimming costumes stolen from gym bags, to dresses and other items.
However, the item I am wearing toda that is the oldest, it is my watch. A classic Mondaine. I purchased it to replace the three watches stolen at the funeral. I rarely take it off !! It remids me of my husband. I adore it. It is not in the grand scheme of my fifity one years old. However when gender based violence and targeting is a feature of life. Nothing I own is very old !!!…
