Circles
Looking the image of his late daughter; my dad in 1971 Another day, another bit of quality time with my teenage niece. This time we made plans for a walk and a coffee over the Christmas holidays. What it actually ended up being was sitting in several traffic jams on the way to the alleged walk (that didn't quite happen), but coffee, cake and a good old gossip about all things late-adolescent all the same; boys, parties and a smattering of A-level bants thrown in for good measure. Top of the goss agenda though, was the latest news from social media that my nephew (her cousin) had a girlfriend! So exciting! Luckily for me, my niece has lived close by to me and husband since she was about 4, and when we were child-free ourselves, I was on hand for babysitting, collecting from after-school clubs, and later for delivering what I hope was objective advice when things got difficult in her world. When my sister (her mum) died so suddenly in the summer I felt especially respo