A village during lockdown works its magic

We had a socially distanced village coffee morning this morning on the field right outside our house.  Everyone arrived bearing chairs, coffee/tea, cakes etc, we all stayed 2 metres apart and it was lovely.  Really wasn't sure how Ash was going to cope but he stayed for the whole two hours and took photos of the event.  Have now put those photos on the village fb page and keep showing him the lovely comments so he's quite fluffed up with pride.  The sun shone, we didn't get blown away and it was all great fun but not only that, mixing with other people and knowing he'd coped in his first social situation for a while seems to have done wonders for Ash's self esteem.  This afternoon then I've been sorting through old photos.  I started this huge challenge when I thought Jake ought to have some to remind him of the things he did with his dad when he was growing up (and they did a lot together) but also in order that the 6 year old will have an idea of the sort of person 'Grumps' was because you see he's never known that man, the one for whom life was for living, everything was a way to have fun and the world was an adventure waiting to happen.  The 'Grumps' he knows is fearful and anxious much of the time but that's not the real him and I want Jake to be able to talk to the 6 year old about that very real Ash, give him the detail and fill in the gaps.  I started going through the photos a few weeks ago only it was so much harder and more emotional than I expected and I gave up but today I decided to give it another go.  So I was stood at the kitchen table when Ash came through and started looking at some of the photos I'd put to one side to keep and we ended up going through them together with him remembering some without prompting but reacting to others after I'd given him the details.  So many places, so many memories and so much fun over the years.  A lovely way to spend a day.

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