[11] And that while he’d watched me be so careful with china, crockery, knives, forks, the one thing I had been tossing into the big bin for burning were photos. Ones of a man he supposed was my step-father. But also ones of me - as a child, a bride, a mother of young children…
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How can I thank you? I asked. Meaning all of it - the photo, noticing, just being there quiet in the background of that hard lonely labour…
Can I bring you back some lunch? Beer?
Of course, I said. And we did - a proper one like old friends give. Not a quick couple parts on the back to signal release but a proper bear hug. The sort that says oh you good person I’m glad I’ve met…
And those feelings of shame and fear that flooded through me as I drove away were those of the kid whose face I’d been throwing away in the skip for days…
The children we were deserve to laugh and I hope you can find your peace