Sometimes silence is all that’s left
When everyone has gone.
The house is oh so empty,
Without a word or song.
But don’t forget they are with you,
In everything you do.
And it wouldn’t make them happy,
To think they’d made you blue.
So hold your head up high and smile,
The way they’d want you to.
For they haven’t really left you,
They are still there by your side.
And one day you will meet again,
When you’re on the other side.
BELIEVE.
Kitos.
Oh, I believe!
I wanted desperately to believe it, so many times, the latest three years!
But the silence is too heavy and I didn’t think it would be so hard …
It’s even harder now, when Christmas is coming.
Your poetry is an answer and a balsam.
I cried, because I found myself in it.
Thank you for sending it to me, Kitos.
You must have read my soul and thoughts.
Because there’s one night when I lost the most beautiful and the best mother in the world: my mother. And I didn’t find much comfort ever since. There are moments when I feel desperate to see her, to get a sign from her, anything. But no, there’s only silence. Rarely, a dream.
The rest is my life which keeps me busy.
Best regards,
Monica
Monica, there are signs all around you but you fail to see them. Your mother is beside you at all times. See the butterfly in your garden, the feather on your bedroom floor? She would never leave you and never will.
Speak to her … tell her your thouights and dreams, she will hear you, never doubt it. She loves you as much as you love her. Life does go on, only fools say it doesn’t.
Kitos.
A few days after my granny’s death, my mother and I went to the cemetery. There were many flowers on the grave. We were sitting there, very sad, because she had lost her dear mother and me - my dear granny.
I don’t know if there was wind there or not, but a white petal detached from a white rose, flew toward us and landed lightly at our feet, right in front of us. I had seen its flight but didn’t think of anything; with tears in her eyes, my mother looked at me and said: “Granny gave this petal to us - she wants to comfort us”.
Maybe she was right.
Thank you, Kitos.
Kind regards,
Monica
Hi Bill, it’s great to see you are still around. How has life been treating you lately?
PS: And of course I’m happy to have Monica and all our other forum members still here…[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: The plumber with the spanner[YSaerTTEW443543]
Thank you, Torsten.
Glad to see you! I’m also glad to be here.
Have a nice holiday! the view is beautiful there, wherever it is.
I envy you 
Best regards,
Monica
Ok
HI DAD
HI MONICA…
I’m tring using voice service. . But …
Monica, no need to envy me – I’m sure you can afford to stay at very same place too. The only thing you need to do is try to figure out where it might be. Any suggestions?[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: A consultation[YSaerTTEW443543]
This beautiful place could belong to an island in Croatia.
There are beaches with sand there too, so … is it Croatia?
Now you are getting closer but it’s not Croatia. It’s a country with quite a lot of different eternities, religions and cultures. It’s my first visit here and I’ll be definitely coming back on a regular basis, now that Putin annexed Chimera and my family is no longer allowed to return to their summer apartment in Koktebel. This is here is even better and it’s very civilized.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: A building site at dawn[YSaerTTEW443543]
I thought that the Black Sea was mine! All mine and only mine
I have tons of memories related to it!
So if I understood correctly, the name of this wonderful place is Koktebel?
Monica, Koktebel is in Ukraine but since the Russians occupied it we are no longer allowed to go there and stay at our property.
The place I’m now at is in a country where people use the same word for ‘yes’ as in your native language.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: Air hostess[YSaerTTEW443543]
Thanks for the tip!
Then you are not in Crimea but still in Ukraine.
Yes?
Nope, I’m at the Black Sea in a country whose people use the same word for ‘yes’ as you do. The Ukrainian word for ‘yes’ is ‘tak’, not ‘da’.
Crimera is no longer Ukrainian as it was illegally occupied by a horde of Gazprom and FSB thugs.
TOEIC listening, photographs: London
Sorry, Google Translate still gives me “Da” for “Yes” in Ukrainean.
In exchange, it gave me “Ga” in Bulgarian in the morning but now it gives me “Da”. Weird.
I knew that in Bulgarian it’s “Da”, from movies, because long time ago I noticed something funny, and not just once: they were saying: da" while moving their head horizontally, as they were saying “no”.
Thank you.
It can’t be clearer: the country is Bulgaria. The question is now: where?
The latest years I went to the sea in Greece, Croatia, Italy, France, but never in Bulgaria. It’s not close from where I live, because there’s quite a distance from Timisoara to the Black Sea coast. It seems to be too far now, when I have so many other options.
Anyway, the Black Sea is still mine! I saw dolphins playing near to the shore one day. The sand of the beaches is super! The waves also (when they’re not too high). Its name is Black Sea, but I’ve always seen it blue.
:-))
You got it, Monica. I’m still in Bulgaria and have to leave in a couple of hours, unfortunately ;-(
As for the Ukrainian word for ‘yes’, it’s ‘tak’, not ‘da’ although many Ukrainians say ‘da’ rather than ‘tak’ because of the ongoing Russificiation. It’s no big deal in the end but I still find it interesting to hear Ukrainians speaking Ukrainian and saying ‘da’ instead of ‘tak’. I think if you go to west Ukraine closer to the Polish border you will only hear ‘tak’ and not ‘da’.
So, yes I’m at the Black Sea in Bulgaria and I’m going to return in a couple of weeks.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: Tram[YSaerTTEW443543]
I’m glad I got it just in time 
And I understand why you’re planning to go back. The place looks very attractive. As for the Black Sea … it has something special … at least for me…the vacation after graduating university I stayed there 24 days and it was still not enough …
Have a nice trip!
Kind regards,
Monica
Yes Monica, the funny thing is that Sunny Beach is not very popular among western tourists (thank god for that) and so they flock in droves to Majorca and Greece while keeping this jewel untouched.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: Florence[YSaerTTEW443543]