Jorge Alejandro Waterhouse-Hayward de Irureta Goyena - 30 August 2025

 

Two Without & One More

I remember one year that it was my birthday and Rosemary was visiting her mother in Brockville. I was very depressed and I was alone. I called my friend Ian Bateson who did not answer so I sang myself a happy birthday on his answering machine. I was in bed. I decided on something I rarely have done. I was going to get drunk. This was to be the third time to date. I went to the kitchen and placed some strawberries in my blender and lots of rum and ice.

I went back to bed and soon I was feeling no pain. Suddenly I heard the door open and, “Alex I could not leave you alone on your birthday so I am back from Ottawa." I don’t have to elaborate how disgusted my Rosemary was and how guilty I felt.

On another day on my birthday, a few months before Rosemary died on December 9 2020, I was feeling sad because Rosemary was visiting Alexandra in Lillooet. The doorbell rang. Outside was handsome Leslie Dala who told me to take him to the piano room. There, just for me he played all of Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

This birthday, tomorrow will not be quite so bad in that both my daughters and Ale’s Mexican friend Eliana Zamora, on a holiday, all came for a visit and cheered me up.

Tonight I will be in the comfortable company of Niño and Niña,