The Sunday I watched my father zipped into a body bag and removed from the living room didn’t seem an obvious point at which there would be a change in the relationship I’d witnessed him have with my mother. That morning, he would have been listening to Brahms or Beethoven, maybe Grieg and watching the […]
Happy Families
My sister texts me with the news that our brother has returned from ten days in Yorkshire to find that his water tank has been leaking and made the house uninhabitable. The insurance company say it will be a year before he is back home. The last time I saw my brother was when I […]
How To Make Decisions
My daughter, returning to university in a few weeks, is trying to choose a new duvet and makes the mistake of asking for my advice. Our neurodivergence makes decisions more difficult and creates anxiety around change, so deciding on new bedding might appear straightforward but instead, we tie one another up in knots of perpetual […]
Comfort Food
Some years ago, in the midst of an argument, my wife said to me, “There’s more to running a house than making dinner.” She was right, there’s no denying it. I felt shame being perceived as such a domestic “one-trick pony”, but it also resonated in a different way, as something I rely on to […]
A Place For Everything
A postcard drops through the letterbox as I’m hoovering around the massive dog crate that the younger dog no longer uses but where the older one seeks refuge when she needs a bit of peace. The card is from “The Idler” magazine reminding me of my recent subscription so I put it on a pile […]
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