The Cardinal
I’m not certain why I’m writing this. Maybe it will make me feel better, maybe it will make you feel better.
My late sweetheart and I were bird lovers. We built a six-foot bird feeder out of scraps. I bought him a cardinal coffee mug. He made me a wooden wall hanging with his own version of a cardinal. I gave him a carved bird. He gave me a bird card about peace. On and on it went through sixteen Vermont winters. During those winters we never once saw a female cardinal. Only males.
The winter of 2014 was our last winter together. He was fighting several cancers caused from exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. It was an awful, gut-wrenching time but we made sure to find something....anything....to be grateful for each day. Maybe it was opening a window so he could smell the fresh air. Maybe it was ice cream in his cardinal mug. Maybe it was a child’s art work of him and I holding hands . Birds overhead, of course. It was this winter that he told me he would send a female cardinal once he was gone. He didn’t want the male cardinal to be alone.
Sadly, he passed away in October of 2015. In November of 2015, on the ground below the feeder we had built were two cardinals, a male and female, just as promised. I cried so hard, but sad as I was, as empty as I felt....these two beautiful birds reminded me....there’s hope, there’s tomorrow.
I’ve read a zillion posts here. Some people seem to be having a difficult time. They’re angry or disappointed, or maybe have lost faith. I’ve done it myself at times. We should send each other cardinals. Or butterflies. Or beautiful clouds. Or a full moon, some raindrops or a breeze. Why? Because it would be way over The Criminal Trump’s head. He’d be teeing off in La-La Land and we’d be building strength. Millions of cardinals vs. One Criminal Trump.
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My husband and I are bird lovers, too. I have called him to announce sightings - a belted kingfisher, a rose-breasted grosbeak, a pair of parakeets (obviously escapees). We were thrilled when we saw a pileated woodpecker at a park in the Upper Peninsula.
When I feel down, I remember this, it's from our visit to Yosemite in 2017. I had never felt such serenity.
First, I wish you the warmest peace in the face of your loss.
What a wonderful story. I found it very affecting for many reasons . . . . . reasons I will keep to myself.
I wonder why you don't see more females. They are all over in winter time here in southern Illinois. I love them, the males are flashier and easy to spot in the trees, but the females coloring is deeper and more complex (no gloating ladies
, like the red is in the undercoat just hinting at coming out and showing bronze and so many shades of tan and reddish brown in different light. Do you feed black oil sunflower seeds? That's what they flock to here and its best because the sparrows don't eat the BOSS. I have read they are monogamous and territorial so you usually only have a few pairs at your feeders recurring, but I have noticed that when it snows and they don't have much else to eat all bets are off and I've seen as many as 30-40 male and female cardinals in the limbs surrounding our feeders and waiting their turn.
