Monday 22 June 2009

Family funeral

OH and I have to go to a family funeral in the UK. Events like this are the things that I fretted about having to cope with from a distance.

My wonderful, kind friend in the next village offers to have the boys but I can’t get my head round the logistics – her boys are in international school and she does a 70km round trip school run at exactly the time when mine are leaving for school and coming back and then needing support with their homework. Also, how would they get to hers for lunch ? She is on the bus route in the next village but my children don’t have the junior abonnement.

I’ve mentioned before that by coincidence, both of my brothers also live in Switzerland, in the French speaking part, and by sheer luck my niece is already home from university in Scotland. I ask if she can come and babysit for a couple of days. She’s been through the Swiss system herself so she understands things like lunch NEEDING to be on the table at 12 precisely or all hell will break loose with hungry children – and the boys NEEDING to get back out again in a set timescale. She is a living saint and comes to take over for a couple of days whilst we head to Lincolnshire.

Apologising for having to email in English, I contact the headteacher and all 4 of the class teachers to let them know that we’ll be out of the country and that my niece will be in loco parentis with the boys.

They email back individually with their condolences. How incredibly polite: I wasn’t asking for their sympathy at all, just letting them know what would be going on at home for a couple of days. In fact, I was half expecting them to email back saying it was illegal to leave the kids with anyone else. But no – they email back with condolences.

I’m genuinely touched.

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