Autumn Reflecting Absence
Image created from personal photographs, enhanced using photo editing tools and Microsoft Copilot.
Fall was once another woman’s favorite time of year. For her, cooling temps renewed energy, darkening days shifted from strawberries and cream to steamy apple pies, falling colors signaled lifecycle tinting toward her October birthday. This woman holds a precious contemplative space in absence alongside her living son, through the gilded equinox— The September remembrance of meeting her lover and his death; the hallowed October parting of her beloved son; the September 22 birthday of a mother who blew out her last candle in 1981.
© 2025 Deborah Garcia, all rights reserved
