The Lievekaai is a cobbled park beside the Lieve River in Gent.  The parade of weeping willows always delights me.  They’re only a ten-minute walk from my apartment.

I have a favourite bench, the one today being enjoyed by the gentleman in the photo.

About four months ago, the bench was vandalized.  It lay crumpled on the ground, not fit for human habitation.  Soon thereafter, the whole structure disappeared.  Where the feet had been, there were now carefully laid cobblestones.

(Sigh)

Was this it, then?  The end of my sitting spot?  One less bench on the Lievekaai?

The weeks continued, and all stayed the same by the Lieve.

Today I was walking in Gent centrum with my daughter.  She’s asked me not to give her real name in these posts, and I can’t remember what I called her last time.  So today she’s “Alison”.

We meandered here and there, and eventually found ourselves on Sint-Widostraat – a short and narrow street with a sharp curve to the left halfway along.  Before the bend, I was telling Alison my sad bench story.

And then we turned …

Fifty metres away, there was a bench – in the exactly correct spot!  Thank you, Stad Gent (City of Gent).

A couple were sitting on my bench and I knew what to do.  I said hi, found out they spoke English, and told them the entire story.  Smiles came from the seated ones.

They started leaving, waving away.  Alison and I sat down.  And then the man stopped.  He asked me to pose for a photo.

He took two, neither of which I’ll ever see.  The first was me kissing the metal of the backrest.  In the second, I’m sprawled all over my beloved piece of furniture.

Hours later, I realized that writing about this today would be cool.  And I wanted a photo to accompany the story.  So I returned to the Lievekaai, to find a man perhaps loving the bench as much as I do.

Life is good