I have had this fascination for the Urumchi mummies since I first saw images of them in the mid 90's. They were discovered in Chinese Turkestan in the Tarin Basin and the Taklamakan Desert. They are fully dressed and incredibly preserved as a result of natural mummification.

The first time I saw them I wept. They looked like they had fallen asleep and been lovingly covered up. Facial features were almost recognizable. One baby looked like a faded memory of my own son as an infant. He had been placed under a poplar log and was buried with a baby bottle made from a sheep's udder. Someone had placed two blue stones over his eyes. All of the mummies were fully dressed in felt and woven clothing that was made in the warmest colours of green, blue, rust and yellow. Their coverings were woven in plaid patterns.

The biggest surprise was that these people, more related to the Celts, lived in this area 1500 years before the Chinese Silk Road existed.

Yesterday I talked to my Uncle in Texas about my dead father and our family. He described the feeling he had walking down a road in Damascus. Foot paths were carved into the rock with the generations of walkers. He walked in their steps and understood we are all very small in time and that somehow we continue.

I will place two blue stones in the last place I walked with my father.