21
Family Gatherings and How to Survive Them – Jane’s Top Tips
For Karen with love – I wish you were here to read it.
To a Wonderful Mother on Mother’s Day.
Mum, I want to tell you
On this your special Day
How much I do appreciate
You in every way
I may not always show it
I may forget to phone
But today I just want you to know …
Ahh. They may fleece you, your kids. They may fill your spare bedroom – the one you need to turn into an office – with their junk and unstrung guitars. And empty a fridge in one sitting and spill cider on the new rug. But when push comes to Mothering Sunday shove they come up trumps. A small sentimental lump rose in my throat as I turned over the card from my darling youngest son:
… I need another loan!
Ho ho ho! Ben had scrawled, next to a large smiley.
Ha, Ha, Ha! You and me both, sonny.
I put the card on the kitchen dresser, with the one from Tilly and the florist’s greeting from Oliver, who’d sent an extravagant arrangement of creamy roses the previous day (no doubt arranged by his girlfriend, Sam, but gorgeous of him nonetheless) and surveyed the line-up.
My three lovely children – still costing me a bloody fortune but caring enough to remember what day it was. Even if they couldn’t be here. I allowed myself a small pang of self pity.
‘You time,’ Caroline, my best friend and one-time sister-in-law, had said at our last drink, before I’d got the train from London back to Northstone. ‘Time to get your life back.’ She had wagged a perfect ruby nail in my direction. ‘Kids gone, new house, new town, all sorts of fresh opportunities.’ By the back door was the final remaining black sack stuffed with detritus from Ben’s bedroom.
I missed him crashing and banging his way around the kitchen, leaving trails of sweatshirts and unwashed cups. And not simply because
