A
family tragedy took my mind away from the butterfly meadow. For many
days I did not visit at all. When I came back one early morning,
coffee cup in hand, the meadow was doing just fine. Everything
sparkled with dew in the morning light, and the tall grass was full
of spiders.
This
summer I read Charlotte's Web to my children. That book does
not pull any punches. By the end, when Charlotte the spider dies all
alone in the deserted fairgrounds, we were all crying.
These
are the last lines of the book:
“Wilbur
never forgot Charlotte. Although he loved her children and
grandchildren dearly, none of the new spiders ever quite took her
place in his heart. She was in a class by herself. It is not often
that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.
Charlotte was both.”
Here is a black and gold writing spider that I photographed in the meadow:
