Christine Richings

THE CATHEDRAL

It stands in all its glory.

The first time I saw the red stone towering into the sky I stood in wonder. I walked here with my late mother looking for the grave of John Rae.

I took pictures in the winter, when the snow was on the ground, up the ally way that leads past the community centre.

I have sat on the stone steps and felt the cold beneath me, and wondered over the years how many people have walked these steps, happy and sad.

I always look at the clock and up into the circular window.

When the poppy display floated down it filled me with pride to think that my grandfather had been on a ship in Orkney during the 1st world war.

I love the shape the arches, the coolness inside, the wonder of it all. The carvings in stone, the new stone crisp and redder, standing out showing repairs.

I look for it from the air when the plane flies over Kirkwall.

I remember how my mother cried on seeing the book with names of sailors lost.

- Christine Richings