A few days ago, a news came to me, Venetia Stanley-Smith passed away in 2023.
I saw the picture of her in silver hair accompanied by her husband in the news and was really shocked at how much time has passed since then, and how many things have changed since the time when I got to know her as a life artist in the media.
Neither have I really sat to watch TV for almost 10 years, nor have I had time to attend to the garden for an equal amount of time after the birth of my elder child.
When my partner and I moved to the current house nearly 15 years ago, I was enthusiastic about herbs. I devoted much time to planting all sorts of herbs. The garden is the focal point of my attention. Venetia Stanley-Smith, a British herbalist married with a Japanese, was very popular for her TV show, At Home in Kyoto. In the program, she showed the seasonal tasks that she would do with the herbs she’d grown in her garden, which surrounded her traditional farmer’s house. Venetia san, the way she was addressed in Japan, made her life style a brand. I was enamored of all floral details on the TV screen. I also remember I was jealous of her, too. I was envious that her nationality had naturally given her an air of authenticity of British life that she was showing, and that her ease with plants. When I began to live in Japan, identity crisis clipped every edge of my life.
Herbal life is a marker of life style, but as reserved as I am, I rarely can appear as easy as Venetia san could in her lush garden.
I read somewhere else that she spent her later years in a care home and was still visited and circled by her families. According to her husband, she had been talking about wishing to return to England in her latter days. This detail surprised me as she seemed to embrace the nation wholeheartedly and to be accepted warmly by her surroundings.
What will become of me? What will I say and want to do when I will lose most memories?
