Dear Simon,

So it’s been three years since you left us. You must have settled in up there by now. Have they put you in charge of the heavenly workshop? I’m pretty sure your idea of nirvana would be endless days of making stuff … with all that time on your hands up there you might even get to finish the projects you start!

Speaking of which, why did you stop painting one-and-a-half metres from the end of the hallway? And how come you just didn’t add in a couple more sheets of plywood to the front patio roof that would have meant the entire area was covered? But just so you know the vice clamp you left clenching in the last piece you did put in is still doing its job some four years later so I suppose that’s something.

 

Down here we are getting on with things. Just to keep you updated here’s what’s going on.

• Princess Child and I think of you every Thursday night when we settle in to watch Gogglebox. It’s a show about people watching television. Yep we sit on our lounge watching people sitting on their lounges watching television. You would so HATE it. But we reckon it’s the one reality show we could actually go on. We don’t have the stamina for Survivor, the cooking skills for Masterchef, or the celebrity profile for I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, but we could SO sit on our comfy chairs making judgements of people on the tele, hell we rock it every night.
• Remember I told you Donald Trump is President of the United States? No really that’s the truth, I was being serious. He’s still there. He seems to be making random orders that get overturned by the legal system but he’s still top dog.
• Elon Musk is planning to send people to live on Mars. He reckons he can send rovers and experiments there as early as next year. I’m pretty sure if you were still here you would be wanting to sell the house to get a seat on his intergalactic adventure.
• Here in Australia Malcolm Turnbull is Prime Minister, yeah he rolled Tony Abbott in a leadership coup in 2015.

In terms of the family front.

Hippie Child is doing well at uni. Yeah without your influence we went all creative and she’s studying illustration and neither of us know exactly what she’s going to do with that once she finishes but hey she’s having fun.

Princess Child is battling through Year 11, she chose more practical subjects, but she is still really interested in photography. So who knows I might end up converting them both the dark side of creative arts and we can all end up poverty stricken together!

As for me, well I’m working fulltime, I’m often stressed but hey so is just about everyone I know! I’m dealing with the house and ready with my apologies for you when we meet up again. Yes building a house was a bad idea. Yes tradesmen are impossible to deal with. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. You were right, and we both know how hard is for me to admit that!

It’s hard to believe it’s been three years, it still feels like it happened yesterday. We move forward because that’s what you have to do, and I hear stories every day of people dealing with far more difficult circumstances than what we have to cope with, but our lives remain forever tinged with sadness for what we are missing.

Here’s to keeping on keeping on.

love

Janine