David Quiney-Mee

Images of Isobel

Photos for a special birthday – on paper or digital…?

Not much, sorry! But there are plenty stored elsewhere, taking up less room and always with us, ready to be looked for and unpacked. Stored in the human hard drive – until it ‘crashes’…

There’s one of us all walking along Downhill with an energetic , bountiful Scottie dog… the light changes, the cold makes us wrap up, the conversation travels further than we do and then we take it home. To a warm fire, a welcome hearth, a bowl of soup with wheaten bread…

They’re not in any order, these virtual pictures, not stored in any recognisable system (just the same as all the others in their packets and boxes…). Sometimes we hunt for them, other times they open themselves and invite attention. We stumble across something, unopened for years, that leads to another, and another…

They’re in there somewhere, each one vivid, like ‘icons’, ready to click on and open a treasure of memories – or, like icons of an older, more treasured nature, made at a slower speed, each brush stroke laid down with care, with prayer, windows onto relationships, opening perspectives, not only telling story but becoming sacrament, means of grace…

A bountiful Christmas dinner…and Isobel at the dining table, then receiving the ‘washing up’ through the hatch…

A room in Selly Oak, a NACCN Conference, and a picture snapped across the room of a dear friend paying gracious attention as a young idealist tangles bits of Nicaragua in Gospel images.

Another snap, a couple of hours later, outside Digbeth bus station, of a gift of support pressed into a young hand, with a humbling assurance that it would be “…from Donald as well.”

A student, sitting on the floor by the hearth in Bannvale, at Christmas, wondering how to say thanks for such welcoming space, when the lens widens to include Donald who says, “it’s good to have you here – thank you for coming over.”

The cloud of witnesses – a wall of names in Corrymeela’s Croi. Isobel sitting quietly, Donald’s name on the wall.

Sitting at a small fold-out table by the kitchen window. A simple meal, starting as breakfast, talking its way into lunch…

From a pre-digital age, these images are not ‘snaps’, they are developed with a dose of time. Even when the images focus steadily on a central character, a few characters, the scene is visited by others who drift, flit through, like ghosts. Were they there, or was that another time? I can’t remember…

Washing up at the sink to the hubbub of schoolchildren in the playground…

Returning after our wedding reception in Bromley by Bow to Andrew and Susan’s home to find Isobel sitting in the corner, at the table. We share a post midnight bacon sandwich…

Bannvale, the Birch trees, the field, the bungalow, garage, garden, open door, and Isobel at the window…

Isobel finds a photograph album and ‘opens’ each picture with warmth and humour…

The piano, photos, a relaxing space, a dying fire, a sidelight, a candle, and Isobel perched provisionally on the edge of a chair. A book, a quote, a piece of music to share that leads to another, and another, in that space between going to bed and actually getting there…

A familiar and well-loved face spotted in the sea of others ‘not known yet’ at the start of a new adventure in Corrymeela…

Isobel patiently ‘setting up’ Alice with paints, a watercolour page and trust to get on with it, in the ‘studio’, Greenmount…

A classy meal in low lighting in ‘The Salmon Leap’…a contrast to El Salvador – and time for another conversation…

Sitting in the tiny ‘studio’ room in Greenmount, with card, pens and a new skill…

Picture from Lucia – Isobel in Knocklayd sitting by the table with her stick, selling books…

Isobel vanishing under the arch in the ‘library’, for yet another book just remembered…

Isobel the driver, touring the North Antrim coast, with stories and lovely places to stop awhile…

In all the pictures a smile. Even in the dark ones…

Sitting at the dining table hearing the news of Donald’s cancer.

A welcome at the door on the day of the funeral.

A slower rise from a comfortable chair…

So many meals, or snacks turned into feasts, and always conversation, with space to think, to ramble, to explore.

Sitting in a soft red chair in the dining room with Alice watching Sean the duck survive the first snow of winter…

Connecting and including an English Baptist and an Indian Sikh Methodist…

Welcome news of a well-deserved Honour from ‘the Palace’… a story of travelling about London’s transport system…and what does MBE stand for???

A Christmas visit to Strand Cottages with Janet and Mike; Isobel, Rachel and Mary enjoying the fire’s warmth while others ‘did the beach walk’…

Isobel. Always there. Rarely ‘centre-stage’, but making room, making welcome, making …appreciated, respected and honoured. As Isobel herself.