It wasn't a great distance for us, however it was an enormous trek home for June, considering that she had already walked to the point where our paths had crossed. Some road kerbs were unsafe for her fragile steps so we often had to walk a longer route to avoid big drops of the street edge. Some of the roundabouts had no consideration for pedestrians to cross at all. Quite often June didn't feel confident or comfortable the way we suggested so we went further away from the direct route. It all added up to exhaust her even more and move us further away from Botanic Gardens. We soon realised we had taken on a responsibility, and we couldn't just abandon her half way through. “Oh well, the Botanic Gardens can wait” was my thought.
 
June, who was from Terrigal Beach in NSW, was visiting and staying with her daughter in Cairns for a few days. The cleaner came to the house on that morning so she thought she'd better go outside not to disturb the cleaner's work. She went to get some lunch from a bakery but she couldn't remember the name. She still smiled and told us that “It was very tasty”. She also mentioned that she had strolled through a beautiful park after the bakery. We couldn’t figure out on the map exactly where she had walked. We walked along the Cairns Cemetery and started talking about ourselves. When she told us her age, I instantly and firmly decided to help her all the way to her destination. She was the same age as my mother. If my mother was in the similar situation in Japan, I would hope that some kind person would help her find her way. 
 
Rob and I took turns to talk to June. When I wasn’t talking to her, I looked around at what was left on the graves – children’s toys, trinkets and plastic flowers in vases. Flowers fresh, dried up and decayed were bittersweet reminders of life’s impermanence. They were symbols of family connection, loss, grief, transience, memories in suspended time. We all want to be remembered by our loved ones after we are gone. Intimate gestures of leaving flowers on the graves of loved ones are our pledge to keep our memories for the departed alive. I had a fleeting chain of thoughts on love and loss while we sauntered though the cemetery.
 
Our progress was painfully slow and June was getting exhausted from her long walk. Once we reached the top end of her street, she needed to sit down somewhere. Luckily there was a car with a trailer nearby so she used its draw bar to rest for a while. I stayed with her while Rob went ahead looking for June's daughter's house. It was right at the end, a blue house as she had described. Apparently there was a gentleman outside the house, getting concerned about June's whereabouts. It was Graham, the father of June's daughter's husband. Rob explained the situation and told him that she was safe and just resting at the top of the street. Graham gave Rob a bottle of water to give to June as he was also frail.
 
When we finally reached the house, we were all relieved. June suggested that she would order a taxi and pay for us. We told her that wasn’t necessary and we preferred to walk back. She thanked us profusely as we bid our farewell.
 
Hours passed from our encounter with June and we were closer to our accommodation than the Botanic Gardens. We decided to call it a day and went back to our hotel. Although we didn't get to where we wanted, our hearts were warm. A small act of kindness certainly helped a frail elderly lady return home safely.