Missing People

Liebe Lucy,

It's that time of year again, the worst part of summer. My cousins and aunt have flown back home to New Zealand after being home for 6 weeks meaning I'm far too aware of the fact I won't see them for a year at least.

As we drove home from our afternoon at the park on our last full day together for the year, my 3 year old cousin turned to me and very seriously asked 'will you miss me?'. She later asked her mum 'can we come back later?'. There's something adorable but heart breaking about the age she is now in that she understands missing people but not quite why she has to feel like that. It had to be explained to her that they couldn't come back later because it was too far away and that's why they had to go on lots of different aeroplanes to get to us.

I'm going to miss my two cousins incredibly in the year it will be until I see them but I'm still happy for the time spent with them this year. The last time I saw them the three of us raced toy snails and sang Frozen songs together and those memories, hopefully, will be enough to keep me going until next summer.

Lucy x

Tiny Hands

A family football game while in West Wales

Liebe Lucy,

Two of the days last week were spent in the same caravan park my Nan used to take my brother and me too for a week in the summer holidays when we were younger, only this time, I was not the child in the situation. Family from New Zealand are here in the UK visiting as they do every summer and, as with every summer, I feel even closer to them now than I did last year. This is their second holiday within a holiday and although this time I am not there with them the whole time, as I was a few weeks ago for our trip to West Wales, the few days I have spent with them made all the difference.

My 7 year old cousin wants to spend all his time either body boarding in the sea, a love of his we discovered while at the beach last year, or playing on the 2p machines in the amusement park. He doesn't seem to care how cold the sea is, if he can body board he is happy. Although he's possibly the quietest of all my cousins, he is still happy to have a conversation and he's old enough now that that is possible. He is also old enough to enjoy listening to conversations between other family members, as I remember doing at his age.

My 3 year old cousin, the youngest in the whole family, is still as cute as always. Her love for Peppa Pig is still as strong as it was last year and she shares my own love for Frozen. Every now and then she tells me I'm her best friend and although she often changes her mind within the hour, there's something really lovely about a 3 year old saying you're her best friend. Recently she's started holding my hand without someone telling her she needs to. If we go out for a walk anywhere you can pretty much count on the fact that at some point she will wander over and take my hand to hold it as we walk, meaning we've had quite a few funny little conversations between the two of us.

The fact that in a week I won't be able to hold those tiny hands because they'll be on the other side of the world makes me so sad but at the same time I feel so lucky to be able to spend this time with my cousins. Yes it's frustrating that for 11 months of the year the only way I can see their faces is through photos on Facebook and late night facetime calls but at least that one month where I can see them whenever I want exists. That one month makes up for the 11 others.

Lucy x