Saturday, September 20, 2014

Coming home

The upside of Dave’s not travelling is that when I arrive back at Manchester airport after sixteen and a half hours journey, he is there to meet me - not tired, not jetlagged, and full of interesting things to say. And I know I’ve said it before, but I always love coming home to Dave and to Hepworth Towers, set up this quiet lane on the edge of the village.
CRW_5077
These things make up for missing the family back in Boulder, and the gap that is left by Lux (4) not getting into my bed at 7 a.m. every morning for a chat on such topics as why my plum tree only had six plums on it this summer after years of overload, and why Dave thought it was a good idea to wash a duvet in the bath. (Lux’s comment: “Dave needs to calm down from his silly choices.”)
I am taken aback by the strength of my feelings for all of my grandchildren. It’s not what I expected. I thought they might be entertaining in a sotto voce kind of way. I didn’t expect to love them as passionately and as tenderly as I do, and to miss so badly the ones  who live half a world away.

14560035730_415375bf2d_o

2 comments:

marmee said...

Welcome home! How I agree with you...I have a little grandson that is 20 months old and I am sometimes almost afraid of the strength of my feelings. And I had never longed for a grandchild, had not thought I would have any...but now when he sits next to me and puts his little hand on my hand..

But it has also made me soooo thin-skinned about the things that happen to children all over the world that sometimes I cannot sleep. When i see a videoclip of a palestinian child crying: mamma, mamma as his mother is dragged by an IDF soldier..it is my dear Raf's voice I hear

Sue Hepworth said...

I agree with everything you say.
I had not longed for a grandchild either.
And I feel just the same way about the suffering of children all over the world - just lately in Gaza and Syria.