The Park on the 28th ~ a recap, and why I started it.

My Park on the 28th series on this blog has been so popular over the last year (thank you if you've enjoyed looking at it!), and as I have now completed a year's worth of photos, I thought I'd do a recap of the 12 posts (links to all of them, further down), and have a word about why I started it.

Last year, on the 28th of September, I went for my usual walk and took some photos because it was such a beautiful day.  I'd gone out because it was the first anniversary of my father's death, and I wanted to think about him.  

September 28th, 2018

It was when I was posting the photos on my blog that I had the idea of taking similar pictures on the 28th of each month.

Dad loved walks amongst trees and green; in 1971, he and some friends started up a walking group called The Strollers, and he would stroll along country lanes and across fields with them most weeks, year in, year out; in fact he last went out with them two days before he died!  

Dad was the last surviving original member, and my Park on the 28th series is a kind of tribute to him, because he would have loved looking at it.... but this is not intended to be a sad post - it's been two years now, and we all go through it.

Dad (on left) with some of his Strollers chums, probably about 15 years ago

A tree is planted for each Stroller when he goes off to 

walk the great country lane in the sky :)

My brother helping to put the tree and its frame together ~ 
was pouring with rain that day!  Julia with umbrella, me with camera😉

Six months ago, a few hours after I'd completed my 'Park' post for the 28th of March, I had a phone call from the nursing home where my mother had lived for the past 6 years, to say that she'd died.  

She'd had Alzheimer's for 10 years, and since a stroke early in the year she'd become unable to acknowledge anyone or feed herself.  We knew she was fading, but the end came quite suddenly.  We'd thought we might get a chance to see her again; my sister was actually just getting ready to make the journey when we got the call.  

March 28th, 2019

She died exactly 18 months after Dad, on a Thursday, too, so the 28th has, in a way, become my day to go for a walk and think about Mum and Dad.  Not in a morose way, necessarily; just to think about them.  I still don't believe they're dead - I hear that acceptance comes much later.

Mum with Julia and me in 1987

I loved doing this series—if you would like to look at any of them again, please click the month above the photo; looking down the changes in these single pictures over the months is a quick overview! Thank you for enjoying my walks with me over the past year. 😎

September 

October 

November 

December 

January 

February 

 

March 

 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 

Thank you again, for your interest in this project :)