Angels . Wings
We are each of us angels with only one wing and we can only fly by embracing one another. Luciano De Crescenzo
I first read this quote some thirty years ago. I remember feeling awed and mesmerised by its sentiment; it appealed to my romantic heart.
Throughout the years it has floated in and out of my consciousness, causing me to pause and wonder at its relevance - more often in reflection upon my own life and circumstances.
Today though, it has come to my mind again as I have reflected upon an exhibition I visited at the Jewish Museum of Australia. The exhibition Mirka chronicles the life of the late artist Mirka Mora. Beautifully presented, it not only displays her artwork but also the story of her life through photographs, journal entries, collected pieces, movies, official documents, letters and treasured possessions.
Mirka and her husband Georges had an exhilarating and dynamic influence upon the cultural and artistic life of their adopted home of Melbourne, Australia.
While the angel is one of Mirka’s motifs, and one that appeals to me in her artworks, that was not why I was reminded of Luciano’s quote. My mind couldn’t help but wonder at what could be called good luck or a blessing or angelic assistance in one of her early stories.
In July of 1942 Mirka, her two sisters and mother had been part of the thousands of people that had been rounded up by the Germans to be sent to concentration camps. During their transportation on a cattle train from Paris to Pithiviers, Mirka’s mother Tsipa made an incredibly logical and calm life-saving decision - she asked Mirka to recite the names of the stations they passed as she wrote them down on a piece of paper she had in her bag. Tsipa then “sealed the list in (an) envelope, addressed it to her husband with a message asking whoever found the note to post it, and told Mirka to push it out through a gap in the timber slats of the wagon.”*
What I find so incredibly miraculous and wondrous is that somebody DID find it and they DID post it to Mirka’s father who was able to find his family and negotiate their freedom.
Who was that person? (What happened to them?)
Did they ever know that a family was saved from certain death because of their actions?
Did they know that one of those people, Mirka, would become a much loved artist and cultural icon in her adopted country of Australia?
That she would create prolifically - yet still be linked to that horrific experience with many of her characters having the haunted eyes of children on the cattle train?
That she would exude joie de vivre until her death at 90 and be the first female artist given a state memorial attended by over 1200 people (including me)?
To me, that person who found and posted the letter to Mirka’s father was most definitely an angel.
I hope that life was kind to them and their loved ones. And that when, or if, they needed it - there was an angel ready to embrace them too.
* Lesley Harding and Kendra Morgan, Mirka and Georges: A Culinary Affair, 2018, Melbourne, The Miegunyah Press, p.16
Photograph of Angel (1958) oil on composition board by Mirka Mora
