Friday, September 23, 2005

Love and Duty

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In the early forties in Indonesia they were forced to go their separate ways. She went with their small children to a women’s camp on Java; he was sent to the railroad in Burma.
When they were reunited after the war they vowed never to be separated again.
Sixty years on she is blind and suffering from Alzheimer. He is not wavering from her side. Now and then one of his daughters takes him out for a cup of coffee or a raw herring in a café on the beach promenade.
He savours these moments before he goes back to his ailing wife. Dutifully. Full of love.

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