Away from home
I can't tell you how much I wish that my children lived nearer to me, or I nearer to my children. This would be difficult as we have one in Manchester, one in Derby, and two near Oxford. When my children were young I used to look at my friends who had local family and wish that my parents were not so far away and now that older son and older daughter have children of their own I am once again very aware of how different life would be if we were nearer. The ease with which you could slip in and out of daily life looks very different from long distance keeping in touch, travelling, staying, being wholeheartedly in or entirely out of the picture. This week I am with my older daughter in Oxford, helping her and the baby as they readjust to life back at home after three weeks in Japan. It is odd to be in a rural place so different from mine. The fields are big here, not flat like those in East Anglia but still open and mainly level, stretching away under crops...