A Lady Unknown

A Lady Unknown I have a photo of my grandmother, she looks so young and beautiful, her hair glossy, but there is a paleness about her and a sadness in her eyes, It is a death has sought her out cast a net of illness around her, ready to haul its catch and devour her. I know little about her, where she came from, was she an angel that found its way to my grandfather´s heart, one who became human out of love but knew she could not stay? When I look in the mirror and ask, ” Have I got your eyes? She looks back at me in grief. I say I know who you are, the lost, daughter of Manus the one he expelled because he found kindness in your heart? Her eyes, deep as mystery lakes in May, look at me in silence, but I do see a flicker of an ironic smile… or was she the lady of the camellias? I see tears swell in her eyes, depression grips me as heart ache of love betrayed, shall I ever know who she was… this woman who bore five children and died at 27. It can´t be so there must be more, not only this bleak silence of the untold.