Relevance

My Great Aunt Bríd , God rest her, was out one morning doing a little bit of weeding in her garden with her chickens wandering nearby pecking and clucking and generally enjoying the feed she had thrown out for them.
She always fed them well and kept them safe from foxes at night, many times rising from her bed if she heard a commotion outside, to grab a shotgun and protect her little ladies.
Anyway this particular day in the garden she slipped and had a nasty fall breaking her hip.
Being of the older generation she did not have a phone on her to call for help and the nearest neighbour was two miles away.
We found her two days later in the same place she had fallen.
The undertaker came and they took her body into the house laying it in a temporary coffin.
She had been a farmer and home maker in rural Roscommon all her life and put her faith in her God. Never trying to be unique or draw any attention to herself.
Never a big fancy hat at Mass or extravagant shoes.
Never made the papers. There are less than twelve people alive who know she existed and none of them have any interesting stories about her. Just that she did live once.

When I was living and busking in Galway there was another busker that was getting about at the same time.
I never spoke to him but I heard him a hundred times.
He was a huge black-bearded man, must've been seven feet tall, and he'd stand up on a big upturned half barrel wearing full scottish highland gear with the big pheasant feathers in his hat and huge wooden clogs on his feet. He'd play an old instrument called a Hurdy Gurdy ( yes it's a thing) and he'd sing old songs from the Medieval period in old English in all weathers.
Days with sleet and I'd be huddled in a Cafe eating soup wearing gloves.
I never heard him sing anything anybody knew or even liked. He'd throw his head back and turn the wheel on the Hurdy Gurdy and sing a forty minute song about something. Literally no clue what. All Day. Making damn all money.
He wasn't a great singer either so there was no good reason for him to be up there but one thing was for definite sure and certain.
He was unique. There was only one person on earth like him. One.
So I always thought maybe that was the thing that kept him going. Sure and certain proof of his uniqueness.