And then he was gone too…

I think the youngest son could have timed this better.

It is what you call a double-whammy.

No sooner had I put clean sheets on our youngest daughter’s bed, ready for the stream of guests we can have to stay now that she has left home [see 08/06/18] – but youngest son has gone too.

OK, it’s not for ever; just two years. But two years feels like forever when he will be, literally, the other side of the world. Apart from the most obvious problems like who will strim the hedges and mow the lawn for the foreseeable future, there is a deeper concern: who will keep us up to speed with technology, Top Gear and show us YouTube clips over dinner? Who will put his arm round our shoulders and call us short? Who will make us laugh because he acts like an idiot?

When someone leaves there is a hole that you didn’t know needed to be filled.

His car [the Mighty Astra] is sitting quiet and desolate in our garden. This car has driven www.freshcut.org.uk to great heights. It has completed many trips to airports picking weary travellers up and taking visitors back at all times of the day and night. It has been used to drive me down the motorway at speed just to show me he could. It has even backed into a new white car and left red marks down the side…

Oh, the youngest son was loud and bouncy. He was always in a good mood and I can’t remember when he was last grumpy. His favourite greeting to me morning and evening was, ‘You lovin’ life?’ So maybe he will be lovin' life in Australia, driving hundreds and hundreds of miles around, and talking about horses. He will be having BBQs on the beach, and taking selfies with kangaroos and koalas. How did parents manage before smart phones and internet? I have told him, I want regular updates about everything. And I mean everything.

Thank goodness next-to-youngest daughter is still at home. Even though she is out all day and most evenings it is a comfort to hear her car come up the drive and her key turn in the lock and know she is home safe. And although she doesn’t show me funny YouTube clips while we are eating, she does sometimes bring me tea when I am sprawled on the sofa, brain dead.

Next-to-youngest-son is supposed to be coming home in a few months after two years away. I think I will believe it when I see it as his return keeps getting delayed by more interesting things to do. But his bed is ready…