After weeks of dancing around pandemic implications, we were overjoyed to have three members of my family visit us for ten days.  During their stay we spent a sunny day walking around Geneva before visiting old family friends for tea. 

‘Old family friends’ is a general catch-all but in this case refers to a couple who met around the time our parents met, setting out on their respective paths as new-weds more or less in tandem, including starting their own families.  One of my brothers is named after the man who became his godfather.  So they feel more ‘family’ than ‘friends’. 

We had tea in delicate white china cups at a table laid with summer-fresh greenery, enjoying fresh raspberry tart and rich chocolate cake, catching up on a year of news and chat.  When we left and came out of the apartment building into the street, my sister-in-law noticed that our hostess was leaning over her balcony to wave us off. 

Picking a crimson dipladenia from her window boxes, she let it drop and it spun delicately down to the pavement.  My sister went to pick it up and carried it home, then putting it in a matching dish with water.  It was still there, and still blooming, even after my family left for the UK (and two weeks quarantine…). 

I took a photo of the flower as she left it in the dish, to remind me of a marvelous moment. 

Photo credits: blende12 at pixabay and author’s own