Siblings

posted in: Family life | 0

Today was the sad occasion of JH’s funeral, and most of the members of R’s extended family travelled to Sheffield and then Baslow, to say goodbye and celebrate his life. L and Baby B came over from Wales yesterday to stay with R and me, and the four of us drove north together this morning, meeting up with H when he arrived down from Leeds.

After the cremation and the church service there was a gathering in the restaurant at Chatsworth, which let Baby B crawl around and burn off some energy after being pinned in either his car seat or his pram for most of the morning. He behaved beautifully, and charmed a lot of people he’d never met before, and when he finally hit his limit L and I walked him round the Chatsworth grounds so that he could take a nap. We were on our way back to the restaurant when H spotted us on his way out of the car park, and stopped for a final brief chat.

Looking at this photo it’s hard to remember that for a period of about a decade one of my primary functions was preventing L from doing irreparable damage to her little brother. Seeing them together now makes me happy, and just a little emotional.