For Ellen

As well as being junior miss's birthday, Sunday was special for another reason. We got the family together to fulfil a request from my mother in law, who died after a brave fight with cancer, just a few weeks before Christmas. She had asked us all to get together in the spring and cover the newly laid patio with bright colours. Chalk in hand, we had a ball. The gap her death left in our lives is in this picture, but there was laughter too, which is what she wanted.