HOMECOMING BLUES...

So, the icy grip of winter is with us. What a good idea to get away from it all for a few days of warm sunshine on some Mediterranean island. Well, my eldest son and his family did just that, flying off to Malta on Boxing Day, returning on New Year`s Eve so our teenage grandaughters could keep their social engagements.

Got off the plane at Gatwick to be met with a freezing wind that makes one wonder about the veracity of global warming. Drive home, open the front door only to be confronted by a scene resembling one of those TV makeover programmes. In their absence, a pipe had burst in the loft, water brought the ceilings down, along with the contents of the loft. House flooded, carpets ruined, can`t use the electrics. All in all, late night disaster for them.

Swift arrangements for the family to be put up with respective parents/grandparents. New Year`s Day, nothing happening. Plumber fixes pipe after a couple of days, electricians arrange temporary power supply, loss adjusters from insurance company on the scene today - just six days after the discovery of the problem.

We all hope, of course, that the problems can be overcome soon, but it may well be some time before the house is fully `habitable` again. Much depends on the insurance company and the availability of plumbers, electricians, ceiling replacers and all the other things that will need doing. Meantime, the family are, of course, more than welcome to what help and assistance we can give them.

And that`s the curious thing. We do feel for them, of course, in all of this but, since our boys left home to find their own way in the world all of 24 years ago now, our role as parents has naturally diminished. So it`s nice to feel `useful` again; to feel that we can help them a little more than we normally do and, whilst I fervently wish that these problems had not befallen them, it nevertheless reminds me that, however old your children may be, you never really stop being a parent.