Wilborg

 

 

WIBORG

 

Memoir

 

By

 

Fred W. Nagel

 

 

There are some among us who claim to hear the voice of God.  For most it is a

 

singular occurrence.  For the Reverend Pat Robertson, it would seem as common-

 

place as listening to the complaints of a dyspeptic old neighbor.  I do not lay claim

 

to any such communication.  I can, however, bear witness to a “visitation” by one

 

of  His earthbound emissaries.

 

It was six or more on a Sunday evening, at an earlier time in my life.  It was a

 

troubled time; a marriage gone sour, the emotional amputations of divorce.  My

 

future seemed bleak.  I had been at work all day on the house we had bought several

 

years before, a weekend cottage near the beaches we so loved.  The work, which had

 

had been a labor of love, was now solitary drudgery; its only purpose, to insure its-

 

market value.  It was the final thing, beside our memories, that we would share.

 

It was a hot day in August.  The heat and the work were debilitating.  At six, I packed

 

up my tools and drove to East Hampton’s Wiborg Beach, behind Hook Pond, for a swim.

 

The beach was deserted.  The weekenders were likely on the road, locals home for drinks

 

and dinner.  I walked down to the shore.  The ocean was calm and summer blue, the sun

 

still brilliant in its waning hours.  I gazed out upon the water, entranced, as always, by its

 

singular beauty.  I dropped my towel on the sand, took off my shirt and put my

 

WIBORG                                                                                                          Fred W. Nagel

–  2 –

 

 

inside a shoe.-

 

Down the beach, far to the west, something caught my eye.  Something was moving

 

toward me, rapidly.  I made it out to be a dog, an exceptionally large one.  Its size was

 

intimidating, as was the speed at which it bore down on me.  I felt, for a moment, some

 

apprehension.  Then, I assured myself that it was friendly and relaxed.  As it drew close, I

 

saw it was an Irish Wolfhound.  He was huge and he was beautiful.  He raced up to me and

 

stopped, abruptly, at my feet.  His tail began to wag.  I took his huge head in my two hands

 

and stared into his eyes, which were brimming with excitement, if not bliss.  His jaws were

 

parted in what could be construed only as a smile.

 

I patted him and walked into the gentle surf.  He followed, by my side, and when I dove

 

into a shallow breaker, he did as well.  We swam together, out into the swells, just beyond

 

the breaking surf, and spent some few, ecstatic moments in their embrace.  Then, he left

 

and swam back to the shore.  As I watched him go, saw him amble back from whence he

 

came, I felt my spirits soar.  I knew, suddenly, and with certitude, that all was well; that

 

for me, personally, in the fullness of time, all would too be well.  My latent, undelivered

 

prayers were answered.

 

 

*        *       *

 

Some twenty-five years later, on another Sunday, I stood, again, at virtually that

 

very spot.  It was my birthday, but it was not going well.  After coffee and croissants,

 

after Stephanopoulos and the late Tim Russert,  my wife Nancy and I drove to Wiborg

 

Beach.  It had become our practice, through the years, to visit there at times of celebration

WIBORG                                                                                                             Fred W. Nagel

–  3 –

 

or of sorrow, joy or grief, to reflect or meditate on whatever circumstances were at hand.

 

In Nancy’s terminology, it was “going to the Big Water”.

 

The news, that Sunday morning, was grim.  The deadly quagmire of Iraq was

 

unchanged; nationally , a too familiar number of grisly murders and tragic accidents.

 

Stephanopoulos’ closing segment, “In Memoriam” , revealed the weekly list of American

 

servicemen and women killed in action, released by the Pentagon.  We saw their names,