I remember the first lunar eclipse I saw. I was young, I don’t remember how old. Young enough that Dad would still pick me up and hold me in his arms.

We lived on Bleecker still, in Belleville. My room was the bedroom across the hallway from my parent’s bedroom.

My parent’s bedroom had a little balcony off of it. It was over top of the sunroom, what had been an old porch when they moved into the house. I am not sure if the balcony was there when they bought the house, but it was a great thing to have when I was younger. I recall many lunch times sitting up there with Mum and Jen in lawn chairs. I guess it got more sun than the front porch and the garden.

I remember one evening being woken up by Mum or Dad. They brought me out onto that porch off of their room and Dad pointed up at the sky.

The moon was gone. Hidden behind the shadow of the earth. Or at least that is what I know now.

I don’t remember if I was given an explanation of what was going on. I just remember the wonder of the full moon disappearing.

The next morning, pictures of the eclipse were on the front page of the Belleville Intelligencer. I felt important at school for having been up to witness it happen in real time.

* * * *

It was an overcast day all day today in Victoria, nearly the other side of the country from my first lunar eclipse sighting. The clouds cleared up just long enough to watch the moon disappear. Then they rolled back in again.

If the moon has reappeared, I cannot say.