Peas & Quiet With Jacko

For my novel writing course, I had to write about an experience with someone from my past that has made a real impression on me. This occasion was the one that came to mind today...

The sun’s eagerness to throw a warm blanket over the kitchen table always gave Jacko* a contented smile. We sat down to lunch with the best mix-match of whalebone cutlery and jumble sale crockery he could find. This morning’s Crab Apple jam had been smeared affectionately on the re-used serviettes. His hand gently patted and enclosed my milky fist, like an old twisted elm tree, criss-crossed with veins, spots and creases.

“You were a little bugger throwing peas over your high-chair,” Jacko proudly explained. “Poor old Dotty on her hands and knees.”

I’d heard this story many times, watched his blue eyes smudged with cataracts relive the ‘good ole’ days. Jacko’s face, 97 years young – like a sheet left in the dryer too long. Lips sucked back into their sebaceous home, still able to pucker into a grin – a few wiry bristles escaping from his chin.

“There’re Magpies, Miners and Sparrows in the mix today,” Jacko chirped about the wildlife in his birdbath. Jacko’s garden was a haven for birds. If I were a bird I’d have visited every day too!

On this particular day, we could have just sat in perfect cadence watching birds, basking in the kitchen, but I decided to take him on a little journey – one literally for the soul.

We shuffled into the spare room. His bed was littered with the daily news. Spread-sheets strewn on every angle. I propped Jacko on the pillows and lay some well-loved towels under his spent legs – broken branches on a compost of scattered autumn loveliness.

Decades of tread had ‘knobbled’ his toes, his nails were yellow, calcified and from “another-life”. Blue badges of time dotted his salami complexion. Ironically his soles were smooth as I glided my fingers along with the peppermint lotion. I massaged giving energy, calm and a moment of grandfather-granddaughter unity.

His feet were like an ancient book; sacred with an encrypted message, as fresh as the day it was penned. His eyelids shut voluntarily, consumed by the moment and overwhelmed by the human touch.

This unusual experience transcended any ‘feel-good moment’ for me at that point – I never take my peas for granted either.

* Jacko was my dear grandfather who lived until aged 100 years (2005). He was born Austin John but was always known to us as Jack or Jacko