Spring breeze

Wildflowers, cobalt waves, and warm memories carried on a spring breeze.

I’m sitting on the cottage roof in the heat of summer, looking past the antique weather vane, out over the meadow and toward the endless blue ocean.

Family photo from a rocky beach in Cape Breton, showing my dad, siblings, and cousins among large shoreline rocks with the ocean beyond. Landscapes that shape a lifelong sense of place.
My dad with my siblings and cousins on a rocky beach in Cape Breton.
Nolan Franklin with his siblings and cousins walking down a grassy dirt road toward the ocean in Cape Breton, with spruce trees, meadow, and blue water in the distance.
My siblings, cousins, and I walking the dirt road down to the beach.

I can hear my aunt’s voice. The last time we spoke was to say goodbye. She said my name quietly as I held her brittle hands.

In spring, when everything is green and abundant, I can feel her presence in the breeze. I close my eyes and try to hold the feeling before it drifts on.

Then I think of my mom and the quiet bond we share, both of us knowing what it means to lose a best friend too soon.

I return to the meadow.

Yellow, blue, and purple wildflowers.
Pines and beach grass.
The dirt path to the pebble shore,
rock pools, and the white caps of
cobalt waves crashing.

Nolan Franklin as a child in a blue hoodie walking with his siblings and cousins along a grassy path toward the beach in Cape Breton, with wildflowers, irises, a wooden fence, and the ocean beyond.
My cousins, siblings, and I heading toward the beach in Cape Breton — irises, wildflowers, weathered fences, and the ocean ahead.

For a moment, I am back in Cape Breton.

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