The one where you make a joke one night and get to live it the next day.

Last night I joked with Hub about speaking Welsh. I must have touched a nerve, he proceeded to spend a large portion of the evening doing just that and at sole volume. Fabulous. He needn’t think I don’t know he thought he could get away with addressing me as ‘wife’ just because he said it in Welsh, “gwraig”. I didn’t just fall out of the tree yesterday.

Today being Saturday we went to the in-laws, they had Hub’s cousin and his wife and kids visiting, all speaking Welsh. There is that surreal moment of bilingualism where one person speaks in one language and another answers in a different one. Lest you be in any doubt, we live “up England way”, we speak the language of Heaven. Oddly the Welsh speakers seem to think the same.

Also, very oddly for us, we were out-numbered. Not just because one of my kids had gone to see his friends but because this family has five kids.

How could they? We are the ones with the tribe, the ones who raise eyebrows, the ones who have to count their kids into a journey and back out again. Think Rawhide.

We can never be sure how 13 is going to react to seeing new people, sometimes to seeing any people. We have had visits from family and friends before that have had to be cut short, incredibly short, because 13 just became overwhelmed and then acted on that.

Today she sat, looked a little overwhelmed and shy, but held the Mum’s hand. This simple action, just taking my daughter’s hand, making no scene, drawing no attention until I saw and said, “oh, she’s holding your hand”, meant so much to me. So much. A simple, genuine kindness that treated my daughter just like any other child while taking her need to sit and assess the situation and not feel at a loss. Not everyone does this. Some people are so aware of their own reaction, their own feeling perhaps of being unsure, not having experience of anyone with this level of need, that they cannot be at ease. Today someone was. It made such a difference.

I have only IG images again today, it seemed pointless to take the cameras with me since the garden has been captured more than enough.

Then the thunder came.

All images © L. McG.-E. All rights reserved.

© 2012, Penbleth / L. McG.-E.. All rights reserved.