Just when we thought sunny days had finished for the year, last weekend was summer again. A brief reprise, sending everybody out to the beach, collective cries to “quick, make the most of it!” ringing in the air. We joined them, Hallam playing half naked on the pebbles at Worthing and swimming in in the sea. And at home, basketful after basketful of laundry hung out on the line, as if we could somehow stock up on dry clean clothes for the winter, like logs for the fire.
But the laundry basket is full again – there have been no more sunny days to dry it, and daily it mounts. Our winter coats hang ready in the hall.
Today we sat outside a cafe in Chichester. Shivering a little whilst drinking hot chocolate and feeding the baby. A smart lady in her sixties with a Jaeger bag and a newspaper sat at the next table.
“Oh, I love babies! You’ve picked the worst place to sit for a quiet drink, I can’t stop looking at her! She’s so beautiful!” She said.
And we made polite conversation – “yes! We love babies too!”, “absolutely, yes, we could watch her all day and she is better than television”, “yes, it is so wonderful to see a hands on dad” – until it was time to leave. She folded up her paper and came over to our table to say goodbye.
“I’ll stop bothering you now, but could I just touch her hand before I go?” She asked.
“Sure, you can hold her if you like…” Said Bill. (And I glared so much at this but I suppose what’s the harm really?)
So the smart lady did hold my precious Esme. The lady was smiling so much, that I had to stop glaring at Bill and smile too.
“Thank you so much, that has really made my day. Really, it has.” She said.
“It’s such a shame really, I do think babies really are so lovely and all my life never really having contact with them. I mean, friends….” She said. And I’m sitting here now, still wondering where that sentence trails off to – why didn’t she have any babies of her own? What is she doing stopping for lunch at Carluccio’s on her own? What’s in the Jaeger bag?
“Goodbye and thank you thank you thank you.” She said, before heading off towards the cathedral.
And I know how very lucky I am already, but… Crikey.
