Gizmo’s Fly (107/365/2023)

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There are only a few gifts that I have received over the years that have brought me to tears.

An old photo of all of my grandparents, with me, as a little girl with pigtails in the middle, that my brother developed from an old negative and framed for me one Christmas about 35 years ago.

A pastel portrait of Tiko, commissioned of an artist by my best friend, as a wedding present about 14 years ago.

And now this.

Today I came into the office at the hatchery and a colleague, the hatchery manager, handed me a little blue box with a purple ribbon around it. I asked if it was going to make me cry and he gave a little shrug and said “probably”.

I opened the box and found this, and yes, I started crying.

I don’t fish…but that’s not the point, this would never be used for fishing if I did fish.

Over the years I have vacuumed up, swept up, and sometimes picked up thousands of feathers that Gizmo has shed during his annual moults. Sometimes the ones I picked up I put into a baggie and stuck in a drawer. I know a few people who fly fish and so I have, over the years, given those baggies of feathers to various people. A few years ago I dropped a bag on the lunch table at the hatchery and thought nothing more of it.

This past week I was sad that I’d thrown a lot of feathers out in recent months and the only bag of feathers I have contains mostly flight feathers, not many anything but green. None of his yellow or orange feathers.

Then I opened the box and saw a hand tied fly, a piece of art, made with Gizmo’s feathers from that bag left at the hatchery some time in the past.

He said he thought it kind of looks like him…I agree….with his chest a green-V diving into an orange-V. It totally reminds me of him.

I ruffled it a bit by handling it, but I’ll smooth it out and find a tiny little shadow box for it.

I didn’t know what to say. I still don’t really know what to say.

It’s one of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever received.