Of Long Abandoned - Innermost chapter was the title of this post in 2016. It said: "I went back 30 years later in a place that would freak me out. A poor little village which stank of sheep cheese, where relatives would grab and kiss my cheeks fiercely. The only joy I had were the animals."
This little house was still inhabited then.
It is now 2023, the end of it. Also the end of it all there. The end of a funeral rite ("an apple tree" with clothes and food hanging on its branches, in the end stripped of them all by the poor). The end of a village where only 50 people still live, 40 of them being old enough to see their own end in this funeral. The end of this house which I'll never see again even if it survives. The last one, out of many in this place, has just died.
There's not much left and soon there will be nothing except a forgotten rite.
2016 vs 2023
