The cozy, gleeful moments of being a child are the quiet, unexpected chats with a parent or grandparent, dipping into the memories of their courtships and early relationships. Those moments which built them – and ultimately built you – which seemed like distant history, a time when their hair was not grey flecked, the middle not softened, their hands not crinkled, large veined and worn.
Such ancient history; the memories of eyes meeting across the Belfast engineers office between a young man and the pretty typist, the school days lovers, the wartime sweethearts. Such ancient history.
And now, telling them to my daughters, sharing the secrets of those heady student days, staying out all night with the dangerous man and his MGB and roll up cigarettes, the quirks of fate and shared ambitions, shared secrets, shared interests that turned us – their parents – from two people into.. into two people together.
Not such ancient history. I don’t know what he sees (greying, saggy, 6 baby middle and a wealth of wonder and woe writ upon my face) but I look at him, my lover and best friend of twenty years and am awed to find those twenty years have scratched and altered and worn away – and changed nothing at all. What matters is what we are… were… became and will be. Best friends. Lovers. Two. One. (Six, Seven, Eight… oh, the numbers that describe us).
I laughed when I saw this video; not least for it being set in Brighton, where my parents courted and those stories that once I heard were told from but for the joy of the unlikely incidence of companionship. In ‘Love in a Handstand‘ Parkour athletes Tim Shieff and Fizz Hood team up to tell the story of an unexpected romance that blossoms between two people, with an unusual talent in common – they do everything on their hands. It’s been created for Cuticura’s Grasp Life campaign, which aims to empower consumers to feel protected whilst making the most out of every day.
And why not fall in love with someone who also walks upon their hands? At least two of my daughters seem likely to find a future partner in amongst the sporty set. At least one might not even notice them upside down 🙂
The girls have a favourite story from mine and Max’s past; I told it only yesterday. The time when Max (horror) dumped his girlfriend (me) by letter and I, filled with outrage at such a lack of gallantry, drove down the unromantic M1 in my sturdy Yugo steed (at 84 miles an hour which was all the speed that it could do) and arrived at his dad’s house to slap his face.
It was early morning. He wasn’t up. And when I saw him all rumpled and sexy and bemused to see me stood above him, I turned around and bounced on his stomach with my bottom.
I didn’t know what else to do.
It made him laugh.
We moved in together 3 weeks later.
What stories do you tell your children about your life before you had them?
Disclosure: Sponsored by Cuticura.
How lovely to have such nice stories you can share with them.