Author: Karen Odden

Returning home late last night from Boston, I drove into our garage and missed Rosy’s nose pushing the door out, which she always did when she heard a car. The absence came at me with the force of a presence; I didn’t even know that I expected that door nudged open, that I looked for the small black nose, every time I drove into the garage, which was probably 5 times a day.

In the dark middle of the night, I woke and stepped around what could have been her on the carpet but was just George’s shirt. This morning, I found myself watching for poop or puddles on the floor as I made my way to the kitchen. Of course there weren’t any. (I have to say, I don’t miss those, per se.) As I brewed my coffee, my gaze drifted to the corner to check the water level in her two bowls — two, because sometimes she’d be extra thirsty at night, and we didn’t want her going outside, drinking the pool water, and falling in. But of course the bowls were gone. And at my desk, when I picked up her collar, with two metal tags that clink with a particular tone, to put it in my memorabilia box, Kyle came hurrying down the hallway, his eyes wide and wondering, as if by some magic she was back.

My mind was wrapped around Rosy in a way I didn’t even realize. Oh, I knew I cherished her and I spent a lot of time walking her and petting her — and at the end, doing whatever I could to make her comfortable. But I didn’t realize how she was present like dog hair on the office chair … thousands of small thread-like bits throughout my day.

What bring some joy to my heart, though, is that when I “see” her around the house today, my memories are largely from several months ago, when she was still healthy and not struggling. This morning, I walked outside to take some trash to the curb and when I came up the walkway to the glass front door, in my mind’s eye, I could clearly see her little face watching for me. She’s still here.

Love is stronger than death.

Thank you again, to my friend Anne Morgan, for this lovely card, for all the sympathy cards and messages I received, and to all those who knew and loved my beagle.

If you would like to share a story about your pet, please do so in the comments. #joy

Victoria in Westminster Abbey, London. #queenvictoria

Upon William IV’s death on June 20, 1837, Victoria took the throne at age 18 and held it for nearly 64 years, until her death in 1901, making her the longest reigning monarch ever. (King George III reigned for 59 years; Queen Elizabeth II has them both beat now.) Over Victoria’s lifetime she saw profound changes in the shape and size of the British empire; in laws governing women’s rights, children’s education, and public health; in literacy rates; and the number of miles of railway track and telegraph wires (from 40 miles in 1830 to over 30,000 by the 1880s). She also witnessed numerous changes in government, working with a dozen different prime ministers from various political parties.

This is one reason it is impossible to make generalizations about the “Victorian Era.” Scholars tend to divide it into early, middle, and late periods, but even that doesn’t address the issue entirely because, as with America, different geographical parts of Great Britain had very different cultures. The Acts of Union in 1707 joined England, Wales, and Scotland; in 1800, another Act of Union brought Ireland into the fold. But these four groups — English, Welsh, Scots, and Irish — still retained aspects of their cultures, and this often led to conflicts.

So when Queen Victoria arrived on the throne in 1837, she inherited a country that was divided into sections, yet all joined together in a parliament that met in London. Some scholars have posited that perhaps one of the reasons Britain expanded their empire so aggressively into Africa, Asia, and South America was to draw attention away from the internal divisions that led to profound misery, prejudice, and violence at home. One of the conflicts that recurred periodically was between the Irish, who had lost their own parliament and control of affairs on their island in 1800, and the English, who resented the influx of Irish into England, mostly at Liverpool, after the famine at mid-century.

In UNDER A VEILED MOON (forthcoming, October 2022), Corravan’s Irish heritage puts him in a difficult situation. When the pleasure steamer, the Princess Alice, collides with the 900-ton iron-hulled collier, the Bywell Castle, Corravan is asked to discover the truth about how it happened. Early clues point to sabotage by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a group that believes violence is the only way to win back Irish Home Rule. Corravan’s superiors urge him to solve the case quickly and hold the IRB accountable — but Corravan’s Irish friends accuse him of disloyalty, cowardice, and bowing to political imperatives. Doggedly, he pursues the truth, but it is one that will shake his faith in his countrymen, the law, and himself.