A Sad Love Story

I hope all you mothers had a lovely Mother's Day. I know I did. All my children were home except my oldest son and his wife, who were with her family, but he did send me flowers earlier in the week, so that was thoughtful. I also got to talk to my mom on the phone and catch up on the news, which is always a pleasure.

So on to the story that explains my title. We have had a birdhouse in our backyard since we moved to this house four years ago. Every spring I wait to see if any birds will adopt it as their own, which has never happened until this spring. We had two little sparrows who decided it would make a fine spot for their nest, and what fun we had watching them fly back and forth with grass stems and weed stems to build a nest inside. The male would often perch on the fence just above the birdhouse and sing his little heart out. When he brought material for the nest, it was often as big as he was, and it was quite entertaining to watch him stuff it in the hole, sometimes having to take two or three stabs at it.

Well, sadly, last Thursday I found a dead female sparrow in my carport. I think she had flown into the glass sliding door we have at the back. I usually like to leave it open a bit for that very reason, but we had closed it all the way because it was raining, and she flew into it. The poor male sparrow has been hanging around the backyard since then trying to find her. He still sits on the fence and sings, but it's pathetic little chirping now, to my mind always with a question mark at the end. Where are you? Where are you? He probably doesn't even realize he's a widower. He might think she coldly abandoned him for some handsomer sparrow. It just breaks my heart to watch him fly from house to fence to tree and back again.

I know one day he will just quit coming back to the birdhouse, and I hope if he does he will have found a new lady bird and moved on with his life. Who would have guessed I would become so attached to a little, common, brown sparrow? It's probably a good thing I don't have a dog or a cat or anything. I'd be a basket case if something happened to an actual pet. I think I'll have to do some quilting today to cheer myself up. Maybe something with a birdhouse ...