THE passing of a popular porcine has been announced in Ahakhista, as the late Fay, the star of two beautiful children’s books, has crossed the rainbow bridge and gone to the great pasture in the sky.
Fay was the star of two books published in West Cork, Why are we here? and Fay goes to Sea.
Fay asking The Big Question.Now, author Niamh O’Mahony and Annabel Langrish, the illustrator, sense another story in the making: perhaps Fay Goes to Heaven?
It may become necessary because, as Niamh told The Southern Star, young people calling to the Heron Gallery, Café and Gardens in Ahakista are searching the grounds looking for her.
‘Fay proved a big hit. Children came in their droves to see her, but last week she died and it is proving difficult to explain her whereabouts,’ she said.
As Fay previously featured in the pages of her local newspaper, both Annabel and Niamh thought a small appreciation might be appropriate, something that would, at the very least, forewarn parents.
The good news is that the other members of the Heron garden family are alive and well including Mikey the small white dog, Pippin the ginger cat, Marnie the deerhound, as well as the secret meerkat and hidden flamingo.
Fay, the hairy Kune-kune pig, and her two sisters, Fuchsia and Fern, lived a blissful life in the meadows for many years but Fay passed away quietly at the end of April.
According to Niamh, the tranquillity of their existence was interrupted only by Fay’s breakout adventures.
‘She was always a character and being of a philosophical mien, she set off on an existential quest to find the answer to the Big Question in her first book Why Are We Here?
A year later, still curious, Fay wondered what was the big blue stuff down the road so she stole aboard Tommy Arundel’s fishing boat at Ahakista pier and headed out to sea.
Last year, Niamh said: ‘Fay’s two sisters departed for The Big Sty in the Sky, while Fay – the most eccentric of pigs – found contentment in her solitary status and lasted another year.
‘This summer,’ said Niamh, ‘when children come running to see their favourite pig, they will be told that Fay has set off on another adventure.’
