Memories are made of this …..

My immediate family is very small. My daughter and her husband live in North Yorkshire and lead very busy and fulfilling lives. I have a son, daughter-in-law and two wonderful grandchildren in America. We live in Cheshire, close to my mother. My brother and his family are in Leicestershire and my sister and her family live in Australia.

So this weekend was very special.

On Friday evening my husband and I drove to a pretty village outside Leeds to visit his mother, a 90 years young, stoic woman whose resilience under personal difficulties is a shining example to us all.

Saturday was spent doing odd jobs around my mother-in-law’s house and garden. The extreme dry weather creates its own problems so my husband was in his element pruning trees and shrubs and doing general garden maintenance while I helped with odd jobs inside.

But Sunday was the highlight of the weekend. My son needed to be in the UK on company business so had arranged a flying visit to Yorkshire. I booked a table at a restaurant for Sunday evening and arranged for my daughter to meet us there. Nothing unusual about that other than this brother and sister hadn’t seen each other for 6 years! No historic family fallout, just how life had dictated.

It was heartwarming seeing them together. The waitress did her extra-curricular duty and took photographs. The conversation at our table remained animated and hopefully not too loud. We were the last to leave, gratefully not chastised for keeping staff working late or ‘threatened’ with last orders! The siblings made their way outside, promising to meet up again, definitely before another 6 years!

Skype, WhatsApp, FaceTime, Facebook are all ways of keeping in touch but nothing can make up for face to face contact. I do fervently hope that my son and daughter won’t let so many years come between them before their next meeting and both families can maintain a close, meaningful relationship despite their busy, often frenetic lives.

But Sunday will remain with me for a long time and I am grateful that I have these two wonderful children and their families to enjoy and cherish. And, who knows what might happen in the future? Life is a funny thing! 👠