Yesterday I purchased a Victorian print

From a traditional spring fayre in Rye

The New College in Oxford

I was told by the vendor

That the print had originally belonged

To his late stepmother

Who when she was just a child

Found herself on the final refugee ship

Bound for the safety of Felixstowe

The framed print was one of her few possessions

Along with books and treasured dolls

In maturity she met a Cambridge man

And lived happily in the city

For a large number of years

I was told that the print

Had hung in their river house

Until her passing late last year

The reason for the sale

Of the antiquated Oxford print

Was that his ailing stepmother

Had wanted its journey to continue

So that others might benefit

I was asked as a condition of sale

That I look after the print and pass on her story

So under a hot Rye sun on a worn cobbled street

I gave my word and our journeys quietly merged



Rye East Sussex
10th May 2025