Family.
I have just got back from London where I spent part of the time at the Hundredth B1rthday P@rty. As usual it wasn't as I expected as I didn't feel upset at all because I had imagined such dark things but my children, although warned a thousand times in advance, were totally shocked by their gr@ndfather not knowing who they were. A certain amount of suddenly leaving the room and random bouts of sobbing in the bathroom occurred but really it was better in the end that the person they knew no longer existed - as he must obviously be 'gone' fairly soon. He spookily looked extremely well and quite vigorous and not at all the shrivelled wreck that I had been expecting - his walking stick had been confiscated by the 'home' as he was prone to lashing out at the legs of members of staff who he thought were maddeningly incompetent.

The children's cousins are much older than they are as my husband's family is arranged so bizarrely (?) across the generations. The cousins all have several young children which made the whole day easier. (Words I never thought that I would say). I was gazing at the merry throng thinking, 'You are all perfectly nice in your rather dull way but you have nothing to do with me as we are not blood relations ... of which I now have none except my children', and feeling quite smug and cool and aloof. But then thought that as my children's blood is made of mine and all of theirs then they are some sort of blood relation - or are they? It was rather exciting being this lone creature rather than a part of some huge Qu@ker soup.

I went to look at the 'home', which was nearby, out of curiosity and it was a genteel mock-Tudor '30's mansion with palm trees in the garden. It looked uncannily like the setting for an Ag@th@ Chr1stie story so I cunningly refused an invitation to inspect the library.
- posted by Iris @ 6/23/2004 09:04:00 PM comment