ashes

The Mountain Fire had scorched some of the fruit, leaving it shriveled or in ashes.

The place where, 18 years ago, my wife and I married at the tree marking the burial site of her father’s ashes.

She visited the site of the house on Thursday afternoon for the first time with a shovel in her hand, sifting through the smoldering ashes looking for anything of sentimental interest.

“All of our family memories, all of our possessions, Social Security cards, death certificates, birth certificates, my husband’s father’s ashes, my father’s ashes and my mother’s ashes.”

He was cremated and his ashes were buried next to those of his parents and Jamsetji Tata in a cemetery in London - uniting him once again with the Tata clan and their legacy.