Pigeon Condominium in Colombia!

Today as I was walking near the conference center in Cartagena, Colombia (where I am today), I noticed some pigeons on the grass. I walked closer, and saw to my amazement some REAL pigeon condominiums! What a remarkable coincidence! I had to take a photograph to share with you.

There were two pretty little three-story houses side by side (with a servant’s quarters on the top floor!), set on a plinth about 6 feet up from the ground. The pigeons were happily standing on their balcony and hanging out in their condos. Truly a wonderful coincidence.

And then, though I had lamented not seeing much wildlife here, within only a few minutes I saw this gorgeous, large iguana. He didn’t let me get too close, and it was both surprising and amusing to see him run away. He could really move fast!

Pigeon Condominium

Pigeons (or vermin as I call them) are a fact of life in the New York metropolitan area. Somehow they manage to survive harsh winters and scary food, and do it with a sort of dogged detachment that might under other circumstances be inspirational. Mark loves the pigeons and thinks of them tenderly as New York ducks. His heart aches to see one suffering or in trouble (but I think he’d kill me if I brought a sick one home to nurse!)

At Tower West, we live in a condominium, but we also have a Pigeon Condominium on the side of the building. I suppose some might find this disgusting as the pigeon residents don’t have housekeeping staff to keep their place nice. However, there is something inspirational about it to us.

Here they are, on the north side of the building under the patio that surrounds the building. I learned recently that this interesting bunch of hutches was not created for the birds, but rather is a leftover artifact from a heater and cooling system that was replaced. So they just closed these holes from the inside, and the pigeons moved in! It’s just delightful.

This close-up of one of the condos with two residents shows the long drizzle of dung (not to mention the big pile that’s nearly crowding these two guys out of house and home!) But they don’t seem to mind; they are placid and happy in their safe little house.

And another sweet photo of some others in their houses.

The resident on the lower right seems to have brought in some bedding for a nest – perhaps now we will find out for real where pigeons come from.

We had a sighting of a dead pigeon in one of the condos, but the body seems to have gone away now. It’s just like the rest of the building – the human inhabitants. We come and we go. One of life’s hard but real lessons that we’ve learned up close here in Tower West.

Mom’s birthday

Today is my mother’s 78th birthday, which she was not able to actually enjoy on the outside of the planet. I’ve thought about her all day. Thinking about my mother is not necessarily a completely happy situation; she was a staggeringly complicated person. Some of that is no doubt attributable to the complexity of her family life as a child. Her mother and father divorced when she was still a very little girl, in the 1930s when this was not a popular thing to do. Her father was subsequently killed in World War II, in 1944 when she was 11 years old.




A piece of my mother's gravestone, which my
stepfather Clark gave to each of us.

 

After we published her obituary (and it was put online by the newspaper) it was a curious discovery for us to find that we were contacted by a young (and incredibly generous and kind) French man who was researching the soldiers who died in France near the end of the war. We learned a tremendous amount of information about her father, including finding a photo of him which we never had before. It was really pretty fantastic.



John Newton Apperson, my mother's father, in the uniform of the
Richmond Light Infantry Blues. He was awarded a Purple Heart,
and buried in the US Military Cemetery Rhone, Draguignan, France.



Clark sent me much of the “archive” such as it was of my mother’s early life, which I have cataloged, scanned, and provided to the family. It tells much of the missing information from her early life. She never wanted to talk about any of these things, which we didn’t understand. At least now we know a bit more about them all, and their complex lives, and the deep love of some of them for each other which had been previously unknown to us.

On another day I will publish the material I wrote for her 75th birthday, which is her “real” eulogy.

A 9/11 Shrine – Again

Yesterday morning after the announcement that Osama bin Laden was killed, our neighbor who lost his son in the World Trade Center attacks put his shrine downstairs in the lobby. I took a picture of it for the blog because it touched me, and it so exemplifies the shrines that I talk about all the time.

Michael’s death in that horrible event had a bad effect on his mother, who was never the same after that and died a few years ago.

His father was so proud of him, as you can see by the details he provided about his life here. Reading Michael’s accomplishments, it reminds me of my own thoughts about the deep tragedy of the loss of knowledge and experience that such an untimely death causes – besides the deep heartache and never-ending sorrow from the loss of the loved one.

We wrote a card and added it to the shrine. I think of the Colberts every time I think about that awful day. The elimination of Osama bin Laden does not take away the sadness or create “closure” – that over-used, false word that is so often used in place of “revenge.” Nothing closes wounds like these.