Compassion, Winter 2021

Winter 2021 - Compassion | www.tcf.org.uk 16 In April 2013 my son, Duncan, died suddenly. In the first days of utter desolation and trauma I felt a desperate need to have something of his to hold. I asked his widow if I could have his slippers because, only a few weeks before he died, Duncan came to our house with his boys, then aged 5 and 3. He opened the front door and threw his slippers down on to the mat and changed out of his outdoor shoes. Duncan was more than 6 feet tall and he had large feet. For some reason, I remember this scene vividly. At first, I would hold his slippers and stroke the material but eventually, I wrapped them in tissue paper and put them carefully into a sturdy bag. From time to time, I would take them out of the wrapping to hold them and think of my beautiful son. I can see the way his feet shaped his slippers and I remember how he walked. As time went by I began to realised that, in spite of careful packing, the slippers would deteriorate and perhaps be attacked by moths! I wondered what to do and came up with the idea of having a permanent Duncan’s slippers “When we see footprints, we recognize them as material traces of being;” “A footprint isn’t simply a trace or a representation of the foot. It is a material memory of its owner treading upon the surface on which the print appears, conjuring the presence of the whole body – the whole person.” Quotations from ‘God – An Anatomy’, by Francesca Stavrakopoulou, pgs, 30, 31: published by Picador 2021.