Scatterings of Memories

Just couldn’t contain Darcy in one place. There are too many memories and so Mum decided to scatter her memories at places that will always be associated with her and to be with those she loved and who had a special relationship with her.

May’s comments: These are the places that I had her memories buried.

• AT JANDAZ IN WALES – from whence she came and where parts of her returned. Darcy was born at Jandaz in 2011, and left at 11 weeks to London to her forever home. Sarah was one of the first hoomans she met.

And Darcy reunited with Sarah when she came to visit London.

• IN COUNTY RUTLAND. And it was in Rutland, on a bench at The Olive Branch where our story began. It was here that Mum first learnt about cockapoos and made up her mind that was the breed she wanted. We’ve been back to The Olive Branch a couple of times with our friends Sam and Lola. And a final trip was planned for last January but we never made it.

Instead, Lola and her family have buried some of her memorabilas in a Biscuiteers doggy treat box under a Prunus Lusitanica in their garden.

• THE HOUSE OF MUTT, SUFFOLK was her happy place where she was DAWG! Sarah was her go to person – she loved her. The feeling was mutual. I had already willed that if anything should happen to me before she goes, Darcy would have lived out her days there.

I also wanted to take her back one more time to relive one of her favourite places on earth but we never made it. Instead Sarah came to our home to say goodbye.

They planted a tree for Darcy. It stands near the driveway and she will greet all House of Mutt visitors on their arrival.

And under the middle tree is buried one of Darcy’s famous tags by Lily and one early favourite toys, Piggy Portia.

• DUSSELDORF, GERMANY was her first overseas trip at 10 months of age. It was also her first Christmas and the Eggert household became our home away from England. In Sylvia’s garden is an Acer Palmatum tree, and I had taken a photo of her there. And that’s where some of her fur is buried and on the branch hangs one of her tags.

• IN THE USA. Darcy travelled with me to NYC when she was just 18 months old, and we were there to close an important chapter of my life. Her being there made it a lot easier. While I was saying goodbye to a life I had known for 25 years, her in my arms made me realised that I am already on a new journey. That she and I will journey together.

That was the only time she met her cousin Molly, who had also crossed the Rainbow Bridge in September 2021.

But now one of their favourite toys and collars are buried together in their time capsule in my sister’s backyard in New Jersey.

• ALONGSIDE HER BROTHER, MILO. Darcy’s brother Milo passed away in 2017. We went to visit his graveside shortly after.

Today they have been reunited over the Rainbow Bridge and buried in the same graveyard side by side.

• ST. TROPEZ was the only time she ever vacationed without me other than the House of Mutt. Yaena and Marley invited her to their house in St. Tropez. She had the best holiday – running on the beach with Marley, picked up sticks and got lots of cuddles from Yaena. She knew I will always be there when she returned from a fabulous holiday.

In the same year when Darcy was there, Yaena had planted a fig tree – and there her collar and tag hangs on the tree in memory of her time spent there.

• FINLAND represented our crazy adventures. On our visit to Helsinki, we met up with Johanna and Myrsky. Going up north to the Scandinavian countries were some of our most adventurous journeys. And that was what we loved doing – travelling together to far flung places!

Johanna suggested burying one of her much loved toys, a knitted heart and a note from me and another from her and Mrysky under the tree in their garden. And on the tree trunk hangs one of her tags.

• AT HOME. Under a tree, in the courtyard of the mansion block, her forever home. This is where she bounced into our flat on 16 May, 2011 and where I carried her out for the last time the late afternoon on the 22 January, 2022.

• ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND was Darcy’s first beach run and the start of our New Year’s tradition of walking by the beach (or some body of water during Covid years). I hadn’t expected to experience so much joy watching her run freely and happily on the vast beach. The water symbolised cleansing and looking out to new horizons just like the year ahead of us.

I had wanted to take her back to St. Andrews last January for a walk on the beach, for final memories. By then she was too tired to travel and I knew the time had come to stop.

Instead, this year, I went with George and some friends over the New Year holidays – it would have been our 11th New Year. I went to leave some precious remains of hers on the beach.

St. Andrews was the last of the ten places where a little of her remains and some of her memories have been buried – one for each year of her life. The whole process and this final act was a closure that gave me a serenity I hadn’t expected. I hope now I can lay it all to rest.

But the most important place where she remains is in my heart – and there she lives on till we are together again.