at our house today. My father has invited a "two and almost three" year old girl to morning tea. She is a good friend of his. They get on very well together.
My father likes small children and they like him. At any gathering if you want to know where the children are you look for my father. If you want to know where my father is you look for the children. The younger children will be watching him perform "magic" and the older children will be learning the secrets of how to perform some "magic" or other.
This is a rather special and very sad occasion. His little friend will come with her grandparents. They have been looking after her five days a week because both parents work. Now her grandmother has been diagnosed with lung cancer - and no, she never smoked but other people did right around her. There is also a "spot" on the right hip. Surgery is not an option. They are going to try chemotherapy.
The process has been delayed however. The prognosis is not good. "Granny" will almost certainly not be there even for such rites of passage as the beginning of school. They are making the most of their time together.
So, this morning they are coming for morning tea. It was unexpected and I have to go out but I have lined up the bears on the sofa (they live here for the benefit of small children) and I have iced some otherwise healthy biscuits with a little icing and pink and white "fairy dust". It is somewhere at the bottom of my list of food choices but, on this occasion, it is the proper thing to have - along with milk in the plastic glass with the dinasours on it that the young friend happens to particularly like.
No doubt the bears will be fed and require a bath from me when I return but an enjoyable time will no doubt be had by all.
I think our young friend is going to be just old enough to remember doing this. I hope so. If she is she might do it for her grandchildren too. Will there still be fairy dust around then? I hope so.
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5 comments:
Just occasionally, 'fairy dust' is exactly the right choice for food!
Cat,
There will always be fairy dust ... just hope their are people around who recognise the magic.
Judy B
Apparently three biscuits, two strawberries and two glasses of milk were consumed. The bears were given a "bath" before I came home. I am not sure that small girl wanted anything to eat for lunch.
A wonderful time was had by all.
How well do you know your sick friend? There is so much she can still do for the children, and continue to do. She can write the story of her own childhood, put it in a special box for them to keep along with tiny mementos - then she will continue to 'live' for them long after the cancer has taken its terrible course.
We really do not know her very well at all but she chairs a service committee my father still attends and we are all trying to be supportive. I have been encouraging her to write things down so that the child has them later. It seems to help a bit - and helping her is part of being human!
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