Susie on the Swing

The beautiful photograph by Dominique Issermann called Susie on the Swing on the front page of the The Vampire’s Wife website was taken in County Cork, Ireland, in a gorgeous garden called Lis Ard. In the garden there was an old house and my husband used to go there when he wanted to lay low for a while and regenerate. He invited me there to visit when we had only just met. We hardly knew each other. My beautiful friend Dominique sort of chaperoned me because my future husband had something of a reputation back then. When we arrived at the house he wasn’t there. There was a note saying he had gone into the nearby town of Skibbereen to get supplies, so Dominique and I waited for him to return. I played on the swing and passed the time. Dominque, in her inimitable way, lay on the grass, snapping an occasional secret photo. (You never knew it was happening with Dominique. Her extraordinary photos just seemed to magically appear.) Anyway, looking at the photo, at my young self, all Fragonard on the swing, in my John Smedley airtex t shirt and my tiny hockey skirt and little else, I can see now that my poor husband never really stood a chance, as he came walking down the path, big bottle of wine under his arm, a grin on his face, squinting into the sun and saying “Hi, girls” and us, just waiting there and saying, “Hi”, back.

Susie on the Swing