Remembering Bruno

It is of course Remembrance Day and I woke from a particularly moving dream, which included my family and the family of a good friend.

My kids were young and I was walking with them and their mother Karen and we passed a little nondescript gray unpainted house. In the window I noticed Brigitte, Bruno’s wife, wearing a brilliant orange colored dress and bustling about her chores. We had come to visit them.

Her flower garden was filled with multicolored roses, and there was one display set up to look like a Remembrance Day wreath, a pink cross with black flowers at the periphery of the arms.

When we came in Bruno was just coming home from work, all smiles and we had an impromptu lunch, adults and children all toasting our reunion with fruit juices and non-alcoholic beverages. At one point, Bruno appeared to offer Brigitte a glass of home made wine, a light milky rose in color, and she motioned for him to offer me one. In the old days, it would have been let the wine flow, but in the dream I declined. It seemed fitting not to drink, as the offering of wine was made especially to his wife.

Their house was situated in a grassy field in the midst of a city, but from a certain vantage point, all one could see were what looked like farm buildings and it seemed we were out in the country. It was a one-story house, more like a long shed but immaculately clean and roomy inside with large windows and shining with the spirit of those who lived inside, sort of like a Quaker home. The place seemed to be rented from a landlord who lived above in a more luxurious mansion, and as I explored I saw a huge garage filled with expensive older foreign cars, like Bentleys, Mercedes and Jaguars. It seemed to be a business that had rented out the smaller house to Bruno’s family.

As we all sat around the table, I tried to explain how I wished I could have provided such a beautiful surrounding for my own family. And then, I began explaining to them how much I regretted the loss of my good friend Bruno Castellan, who although there in the dream, actually died from cancer at the age of 40, leaving behind his wife and 4 children. Tears began to well up with huge emotions, and I could not find the words to describe the loss of such an important person in my life.

When I woke from this dream, I lay there for a long while still savoring the emotions that the dream awoke in me. How much we take for granted, and how quickly the beautiful things in our lives vanish like mist!