Family life

Although Anna spent three years away from home while she was at Exeter University and a further year at Shrivenham Defence Academy while doing her Masters, somehow her move this morning seemed much more final. Everything has happened in such a rush that she will only get the flat on the day she starts in her new job. So she took with her as much as she can physically carry to get herself through the week, then she will organise a van to move everything. A few days in the new flat will also better enable her to know what she needs. I think we all felt that it was a momentous move. We had champagne yesterday to celebrate the start of her new career and in so many ways we are happy but there is, as I look at the flat in our house without her, a sense of loss which every parent can understand.

Yesterday I had my mother over so she and Anna could see each other before Anna went. There will be fewer opportunities for meetings as North Wales is awkward by train and although the route by car looks all right on the map, any journey that goes within twenty miles of Birmingham is liable to be held up. My mother is very pleased that both Jonathan and Anna are in interesting careers and loves to see them.

Although I have two days of hospital appointments ahead, I also have the opportunity to stay with Jonathan overnight for two evenings. Poor Raymond has a lot of driving ahead which will be tiring after the course, as he has to come back to attend his orthopaedic appointment on the Isle of Wight.

The best cure for my medical uncertainty and missing our offspring would seem to be keeping busy. As we suspected somehow Anna’s rabbit, Starsky, is not going to be moving to North Wales although he will be going there on his holidays when we visit, or if we go to France or elsewhere. Animals whether domestic or wild seem to give us so much consolation. Yesterday the deer family spent the late afternoon and evening in the garden. As they were there again in the morning they could have been there all night. It somehow seemed significant that it wasn’t a solitary deer, but the whole family.