For Ewa’s Parents
Ewa's Bench in Haworth
The road to Wuthering Heights leads through Haworth, the small town in the Pennine Mountains where the Brontë sisters spent most of their lives. On the first day of spring, at dawn, Haworth became richer with a handful of words from Poland where they have been engraved on a brass plaque:
I loving memory of
Ewa “Luned” Młynarczyk (1982–2022)
dearest soulmate, talented scholar, pure heart of Green Gables
“I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always — take any form —
drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!”
Emily Brontë
Somewhere halfway up the steep Main Street, opposite the blue — like Enya’s dress in Caribbean Blue — Hatchard & Daughters second-hand bookshop, and next to the Oh la la Vintage shop facade adorned with three birdhouses and the likeness of Mary Poppins — there is a unique bench. It was made years ago by David Robertson (Brontë Adventures) to provide a place for elderly people where they can rest on the way up the hill. Fate crossed my paths with David’s at the end of January 2023, when I was looking for a way to make one of Ewa’s (more about Ewa: link) dreams come true. I know she wanted to see Wuthering Heights — we both loved Emily Brontë’s novel — and I hoped that after defending her PhD dissertation, Ewa would travel to Haworth with me. Yet, unexpectedly, she passed away. Nevertheless, I promised her and myself that this visit would take place in a different way. For I believe that words can be keys that unlock secret passages to other dimensions, or ever-new windows onto the world(s)… “Let me in-a-your window”. So let this plaque open thc way to the most tender of presentifications and longed-for encounters — hapenning between words. And to you, David, I say thank you for the words you confidently addressed to me — then, a stranger — which I will never forget: “I wanted the world to know Ewa for you. I want you happy, but more importantly, I do like to know how you truly feel”.
Ewa’s name — along with her Welsh pseudonym — was first handwritten by Jakub Niedziela (the inscription also functions as the website’s logo and adorns one of the pages in Ewa’s book). I completed the rest in a font by William Morris — who is of the main ‘protagonists’ of Ewa’s dissertation. The mention of Green Gables is a reference to her beloved book – Anne of Green Gables.
The custom of placing epitaphs on benches is typical of British culture. It has always been very heart-touching thing for me — whenever I visited the UK, I have sought out these inscriptions and photographed them to bring the human subjectivity, embedded in them, out from the shadows of anonymity or oblivion. I particularly remember one: “When you miss me, sit right here. Speak out loud, I’m always near”. At the time, I did not imagine that one such plaques would become a ripening echo from the depths of my own heart — and I would give anything to have no reason to place it there. There are probably more beautiful benches in the world, but this one is yours, my dearest Ewa. This is why it is one of a kind.
I am looking at the pictures of the bench surrounded by two flowerbeds. The flowers and shrubs are cared for by Alma — the wife of Alan, who helped David build the place. Alan passed away a few years ago. At the end of March, the daffodils were blooming there — shyly tilting their heads towards the bench, as if to lay them on the shoulder of the resting Soul, whispering in her ear:
“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils”.
W. Wordsworth
In July, when I was able to see the bench with my own eyes for the first time, it was a blaze of summer colours — enhanced by the reflection in the window of the nearby bookshop, which for a moment seemed to turn the stones of the wall into books and the books into stones. Soon, the bench would be warmed by the yellow flames of the leaves and the foxy reds, and in winter the snowflakes would perform the Dance of the Sugar Fairy on it, before becoming flower petals again in spring.
There is everything a Soul desires: books at Hatchard & Daughters, Spooks, Wave of Nostalgia and T. Venables, birds, flowers, the smell of fresh bread coming from the nearby bakeries and mixed with the scent of rain (this is England, after all), the aroma of Irish coffee dancing in the air to the melody of the night mists, moors across which you can wander endlessly, listening to red grouses’ calls and dancing… Perhaps Ewa’s book will soon appear in the bookshop opposite the bench. It will certainly also make its way to the book exchange point located in the red telephone box on Main Street. Who knows, maybe this booth is the librarial equivalent of the TARDIS from Doctor Who?
From time to time I receive photos of random passers-by and friends posing on the bench to whom David has told about Ewa. Looking at these serene, stranger-next-door faces, I am reassured that this special place has symbolically taken on the role Ewa used to play in other people’s lives: connecting, making people smile, giving strength as an ‘unmoved mover’, a heart of exchange of thoughts and warmth, of soulcrossing. And how many astonishing scenes invisible to the eye must happen there — Ewa herself knows best.
On the first day of spring, when the plaque was officially attached to the bench, I opened Wuthering Heights on a random page, and the first sentence I saw was: “I’ll take this walk every morning”. I take your word for it, my dearest Ewa. And one day we will walk there together. In the meantime, your book, wafting out of the dark night of the soul, is now spreading its wings (and 80 mm flaps) into the daylight.
MS
trans. by Jakub Niedziela
Story shared in I love Haworth and Brontë Parsonage group on Facebook: link
Danuta Skibińska2023-06-26Polecam magiczne miejsce i stronę www!
Yoda II2023-06-13Great spot, honestly!
Katarzyna Cabanek2023-06-13Miejsce ważne dla wyjątkowej osoby i ze względu na wyjątkową osobę, którą upamiętnia. Mam nadzieję, że uda mi się je odwiedzić w przyszłym roku
Jakub Niedziela2023-06-12A charming place tinged with presence of Someone special – for chasing dreams, meeting dreams, fulfilling dreams.
Thank you…thought provoking and such evidence of the intangible bonds we feel and encounter…with places, people, sometimes animals and plant life.
Thank you, Josephine, for stopping by! All the best – Małgosia
What a wonderful project to remember her!!
I hope to sit there on the bench next time I’ll go to Haworth!
Thank you, Maddalena, for stopping by and for your kind words! See you in Haworth one day! Małgosia
If my customers are looking for a bench to sit on to eat their ice-cream, I always suggest they go to this bench. Now I can point out what a special place this is.
Dear Louise, it means a lot to me – thank you from the bottom of my heart and see you one day in my/our beloved Haworth! Małgosia