These are the photos we work a lifetime for. Rebekah and I met, we started dating, we fell in love, we married… and then all this happened. Good grief. First Andrew, then Naomi; two most wonderful in-law children; four beautiful grandchildren; two remarkable families.

So we had a few people over for lunch. My mum; Andrew and Naomi’s families; my parents’ other grandchild (my niece, Hannah) along with her husband and their five children; plus our niece Lindsay and her boyfriend; and Tom, too, Rebekah’s brother-in-law from Virginia Beach. Finally, Rebekah’s cousin Zandra came in from Georgia.

It was the noise, the massive amounts of food, the constant banging of doors as children came in and out, the dog hiding under the table hoping to be left alone, the air-conditioning pushing hard to keep up but losing ground – all adding up to classic summer family reunion conditions.

Quite the day. From being “that” family at church (you know, the people with the yelling child and the toddler who escapes then hides under the communion table), to masses of people for lunch, to constantly washing dishes and preparing more food, to hugs and goodbyes as half the crowd drive away to Florida and South Carolina and Virginia, to settling down with all the grandchildren to watch movies in the evening, to walking the dog with my now 9-year-old granddaughter before settling down for the night…

Exhausted. Happy. Blessed. – DEREK