My first ...

school prom was today. Our school hosted the event, and invited pupils and teachers from several local schools, both mainstream and special. Each class in our school, and each group from the visiting schools, performed a different musical song or story, often using assistive technology such as iPads, soundbeams, communication aids, and BIGmack switches.
It was exciting, nerve racking, and very, very moving. I also had the chance to meet the elder brother of one of the children for whom I am responsible at lunchtimes.

To top that would be hard, but when I framed this image, the daisies sprung right out at me, reminding me of my first holy communion in June 1970, in Co. Dublin. I wore a white dress, red patent leather shoes if you please, and a hairband with large daisies on it. My hair was white-blonde. I wish I still had the photo of me in my rig-out standing beneath the laburnum tree, which was magnificent that year. Oh, and my teeth were gappy! After the ceremony and the photo call at home, we drove out for a family picnic in the Wicklow mountains, thus establishing a first communion tradition. My mum was there, and her helper, Mo, and my four younger siblings. My elder sister TML was already at boarding school in Scotland, and my father had more or less started living full time in Mexico, but for me it was a five-star day, ever to remain so. The cine films show us having a grand time throwing stones and splashing in a small burn, and picnicking, though I recall only the melamine plates and the plastic salt-and-pepper shaker, and none of what we ate!

I suppose what the school proms, and my first communion, and these daisies still waiting to be planted, have in common is innocence. We can't have it back, but we still have my mother's cine films, which I hope to have converted. This poem, Eden Rockwhich I may have shared before, suggests that we may in time meet again and rejoin our younger, more carefree parents.