Welcome Northwind!
Funny you post the image of a swan. Makes me think of a book I'm reading right now. I'll write about anything to get my nightmare out of my psyche for a bit.
Okay, anyway, I'm reading the book The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks.
http://nicholassparks.com/Novels/TheWedding/Index.htmlThat's the plot. Well anyway, his eldest daughter is going to get married. But Noah - Janes dad, who's like 87 years old in a nursing home, gets injured because he trips over a root while being out at the pond at the nursing home. He feeds this one swan every single day. He believes its his deceased wife, Allie. (if anyone saw the movie The Notebook, in the books they don't die together). Anyway, she died five years before him, and he would sit in the home, until later, he feels he needs to go outside, feed this one swan. He has really good memories of swans because on the fateful day where they meet again, she comes to him after 14 years of being apart, they're in this canoe on the waters, and its surrounded with swans, everywhere, and never had it happened again, that many swans.
So Noah believes this particular swan is Allie, his deceased wife. He takes bread out to her everyday. But his children who are all grown up, of course, hate the swan in a way. Because they don't think it's 'logical' or healthy for him to believe the swan is her.
But really, as I was reading that, I thought "wouldn't he know his own wife? And who cares if it wasn't. It made Noah want to get up, and go out, instead of sit in his room and be sad, because the love of his life is gone. The swan makes him happy."
Anyway, where i'm at in the book, is he tripped over the root. But the wedding of his grandaughter is to occur that weekend. He's determined to stay alive to make the event. He tells them that. He tells the family members to not cancel the wedding or postpond it on his behalf. He wants to go, and he doesn't care he's injured. But he knows his time is short. In the meantime, keeps giving Wilson advice, subtly though, because he knows Jane (Noah's daughter, hes the in law), and he need to resurrect their marriage. Wilson is trying to do it, step by step, basically make his wife fall in love with him over again. Esp cause she had the example of her parents who had that kinda love. He knows she wants that. He feels like he's been a bad husband, neglected some things. He's realizing (at this point in the book), he was a little neglectful. Because love takes work, to keep things alive. He realizes it when he hurts his wife by forgetting their anniversary. His daughter is getting married on their wedding anniversary this time, same day. He's trying to do it special this go round for her and him, and to save their own marriage.
So that's where i'm at in the book. Will Wilson and Jane be able to save their marriage? Will Noah be able to stay alive long enough to make the wedding? Is the swan really Allie?
I dont know the answer to the other two questions, but to the latter, yes, I believe the swan is her. Who cares if its not logical. Love isn't a matter of logic - its magic.
