Home

So today I hugged my mum. Not a big thing in 'normal' life, but something I haven't done in over a year. I took this photo of my mum because I haven't been able to sit next to her in more than a year, and it felt like a moment I wanted to record.

Both my mum and I live alone and each of us had formed an extended household with one of my brothers (me with my younger brother, my mum with my older brother). But a little before Christmas I realised that the guidelines now allowed folks to switch extended households, provided a clear two weeks is left between being in contact with each of the households (I know other people had done this before any guideline change, but we were keeping to the rules as much as possible). So switching is what we have done for the duration of my Easter break - it is more than two weeks since either of us have been in contact with one of my brothers, I've taken time off work, my mum and I have reformed as a household and I've come across to my mum's for my holiday.

It is very, very lovely to be able to hug my mum again, to stand close to her, to just do normal things. But it's also very, very odd that it has been over a year since we were able to do that, and that it has been more than a year since I was last at my mum's house, the house that I grew up in. I am so looking forward to spending time with my mum.