Annointing oil

There is a small bottle of hair oil that Asha and Enoch have been playing with for the past few days.

This morning they told me what it was. "Opa's annointing oil!" He uses it when people are sick and he prays for them. I had to smile, thinking of my dear father who took a portion of his favourite "Keo Karpin" hair oil and put it in a small plastic bottle - perhaps a hand-me-down from someone who picked it up from a hotel.

.

When I smell their hands, I smell my father - in his sincerity and simplicity.

.

But besides anointing people - and being used on his own head on a daily basis - the oil has also been used for another purpose. In January Opa and Oma took Sheba and the kids for a picnic at Borivali National Park. At a small play ground Asha and Enoch enthusiastically swung - on swings that screeched horribly. Out came the annointing oil - and one set of swings in the National Park were silently and smoothly swinging Opa's beloved grand-kids.