Aunt Elise

My sister is an "anorak" person. The type that spends her holidays taking long muddy walks with the dog and buys clothes for practicality as apposed to fashion. Her wardrobe consists of fleece jumpers, light blue shapeless jeans, mustard walking shoes, wellington boots and, yes, lots of anoraks. For her anniversary I bought her and her husband a spa treatment weekend (lord knows she needs her hair conditioned!).

Early Saturday morning I drove to Devon and picked up my nephew. I had offered to baby-sit for them while they "had a go" at the spa. My nephew is a sweet polite boy. I feel quite sorry for him sometimes. His parents seem to want to dress him in Trax trainers, fleece jumpers, blue jeans and, yes you guessed it, anoraks, without any regard at all to children's fashion. I know he's only 6 years old but children can be so cruel at school. The slightest difference can cause teasing. Imagine what the poor child goes through every day!

I grasped this opportunity to be Cool Aunt Elise and took him shopping as soon as we got back to London. Within an hour he was completely exhausted and I had successfully bought him new t-shirts, Converse trainers, fashionable army trousers and some sports hoodies. Children's clothes are so inexpensive!

Solicitor called me while I was driving home through the town centre. I had forgotten to bring my hands free kit so I put him on loudspeaker and asked my nephew to hold the phone up near my ear as I battled through the traffic. I luckily missed crashing into another car by inches. I broke hard and swore. My nephew found this incredibly funny and started laughing. I quickly asked Solicitor to meet us at my place and hung up. I spent the journey home explaining why swearing is very bad.

It was only when I arrived home that it occurred to me that seeing my nephew might erupt some bad memories for Solicitor. His son was around the same age when he died and his dark hair and large brown eyes were very similar to my nephew's. When he arrived I saw a flicker of pain in his eyes. He recovered quickly and offered to play Ludo with him while I prepared dinner.

When I'd finished cooking I found them both talking easily with each other. My nephew's eyes were lit up and he was animatedly describing his pet hamster. Solicitor’s eyes met mine across the room. I don't quite know what passed between us but I my heart felt so...warm.

Later that night the three of us sat on the sofa and watched Disney's Lion King. I'd dimmed the lights to create a cinematic effect. My nephew sat between us holding a big bowl of microwave popcorn. By the end of the film he had fallen asleep on my shoulder. Solicitor carried him into the spare room and pulled back the covers while I dressed him in his plain blue cotton pyjamas. The poor kid should have Looney Toons ones or something. What was his mother thinking buying plain Marks & Spencer pyjamas for a 6 year old? I must remember to buy him some new ones for Christmas.

A few hours later the two of us went to bed. It was the first night that we'd slept together without having sex. We were content with just holding each other through the night.

The quickie in the morning doesn't count!