Siblings

Today was the sad occasion of JH's funeral, and most of the members of R's extended family travelled to Sheffield and then Baslow, to say goodbye and celebrate his life. L and Baby B came over from Wales yesterday to stay with R and me, and the four of us drove north together this morning, meeting up with H when he arrived down from Leeds.

After the cremation and the church service there was a gathering in the restaurant at Chatsworth, which let Baby B crawl around and burn off some energy after being pinned in either his car seat or his pram for most of the morning. He behaved beautifully, and charmed a lot of people he'd never met before, and when he finally hit his limit L and I walked him round the Chatsworth grounds so that he could take a nap. We were on our way back to the restaurant when H spotted us on his way out of the car park, and stopped for a final brief chat.

Looking at this photo it's hard to remember that for a period of about a decade one of my primary functions was preventing L from doing irreparable damage to her little brother. Seeing them together now makes me happy, and just a little emotional.