build me a castle of memories just to have somewhere to go…
What a beautiful line. (Someone with an online handle sardonicynic posted this on the site archiveofourown.org – a site offering a noncommercial and nonprofit central hosting place for fanfiction – fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, film, etc.)
I visited the Luise Kimme museum today. I really didn’t want to go. Pure laziness I guess but I’m so glad I did.
Luise Kimme died on April 19th 2013 after battling cancer for six months, but her work lives on at “her Tobago Castle”.
When visiting Tobago, a Sunday visit to the Kimme Museum is a must. There you can admire the larger than life size sculptures made from oak, cedar, lime, cypress and bronze, depicting perfect portraits of the beautiful Tobagonians.
Today we walked through this castle and saw not only the beautiful art but we also caught a glimpse of how Luise lived. We petted the dogs, saw where she worked, gazed at unfinished pieces, and admired the fretwork and old style windows.
I was feeling something…but I could not translate it…
While there I took pictures, still attempting to put what I was feeling into words. Nothing.
This afternoon, as I was chatting with my friend Juliette, and talking about my visit she introduced the idea of friends being the “keeper of memories”. I felt that the phrase opened a door into my own understanding and when I got off the phone, I Googled “keeper of memories” and stumbled upon that wonderful line…build me a castle of memories just to have somewhere to go.
It felt to me that this was what Kimme wanted…to leave us a castle of memories so we will have somewhere to go.
On her website she says
YOU WANT TO START OFF IN LIFE AS YOU MEAN TO END
In my search for meaning I came across this beautiful poem about friendship…
“THE KEEPER OF FRIENDSHIP”
In a friendship
We’re free to expose,
Parts of ourselves Nobody else knows.
But the thing that sustains it
And sets it apart,
Is not something spoken
It’s a bond of the heart.
True friends are rare
In a lifetime two or three,
I’m so glad it happened
Between you and me!
I think in our own homes we feel free to expose parts of ourselves nobody else knows and I guess in a sense, I was feeling just a tad uncomfortable with all that was exposed today at the Kimme Castle. The realness of the experience was a little too much for me at times. She lived here. She ate and slept here. These were her things…peculiar to her. And now everyone else knows about them…all is exposed…
Perhaps we all need to have a little more courage to invite people into the castles of our existence and “expose” ourselves so that the world could see us…view our art…take in our talent.
Luise invited people to her castle way before her death. Let us not die with our treasures…let us not just reveal them to friends only…for indeed those not close to us can be touched by what we do…be influenced by our gifts…and may even be inspired to use their own gifts.
Thank you Luise.
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Giselle Hudson content creator and ghostwriter - Trinidad and Tobago 
One response to “A Castle of Memories”
A castle of memories I have made, not for display but in this journey that is life I’ve carved my niche not realizing I was painting life on a canvas for those who were brave enough to peep. Nice perspective on life.