LEGEND has it that a 99-year-old lady living in the incredibly beautiful town of Fingal Bay was widowed over a century ago.

Grief stricken and pining for the love of her life, she took one last, slow and compelling lap around the peninsula they had called home their entire life; wanting only to retrace their tapestry of meaningful moments.

Navigating the neighbourhoods she knew like the back of her crinkly and wrinkled hand, the shiny-eyed woman decided to choose gratitude over sorrow, for the memories they had created.

As she traversed each landmark seeped into her memory, she sowed seeds of sunshine along the sides of the black bitumen ribbons of road.

She reminisced about the day she yoked her heart to her husband, waltzing in floaty and crisp wedding garb and brimming with ideas about their future.

Sweeping through hugging headland curves, she pondered upon the images of the children they raised, playing on the alabaster tinted, sandy beaches, collecting shells and driftwood with delighted, giggling faces as the waves tickled and lapped at their feet.

As the woman recalled every sentimental marker along her life’s journey, tears of happiness trickled, inadvertently watering the littering of sunny seeds she’d spread.

Nearing her final resting place, she emanated her last exhale, emitting a vibration of pure love and appreciation.

As she softly drifted through a kaleidoscope of snapshots capturing picnics beneath gymea lilies, the salty spray of whale blow along the coastal horizon, the scent of jasmine infused foreshore walks, the stain of lavender coloured jacaranda showers at her doorstep, a dolphin’s fluke piercing glassy sheets of calm water and the warmth of her community’s welcoming embrace, she felt happy and at peace.

The legend goes that the wildflowers of that lovely lady’s mind bloom every year, as corridors of herbaceous, tooth tipped petaled, summer sun-loving, coreopsis lanceolata.

Their flowering fields as you drive from place to place, herald upcoming holiday cheer and the opportunity to give thanks for a year of memories.

By Jacie WHITFIELD