may 2-4 in the backyard

coffee and sympathy

Mum gave me this mug today.

auntie lily

Auntie Lily died tonight at 11:30ish GMT.

She was a truly beloved aunt to me, my sister and all the children who found comfort and laughter in her home and in her garden.

Jill, Mum, Auntie Lily and me.

If we are lucky in this life we get two kinds of family members, both equally dear. We have the family we are born to and the people who become family through love and years and constancy.






My mum and Lily met as youngsters when they were working in London.

Mum

Auntie Lily

They remained the very best of friends through wind and rain

and all the things grand and trivial, wonderful and awful, that this life brings us.

They became sisters through love and years and constancy.

They loved each other deeply and we all got to be a part of it.

Auntie Lily, Uncle Joe,
Grandad and me.

Grandad, Uncle Joe,
Mum and me.

Thank you Mum for finding us this good aunt.

Thank you Auntie Lily for being my aunt.

I keep trying to write all the ways I am going to miss you but they are countless. Endless. Boundless.

I am the luckiest of nieces.