Claire’s house in October was different from the February version.
February had been tentative, the first meeting, the careful restoration of something long broken. October had the ease of the third visit, the second with the children, and the house received us with the particular warmth of a place that has been opened to people it wants inside it.
She had prepared the garden room for Rose and Thomas, which told me something about how she had been thinking about the visit, the specificity of the preparation, the particular effort of a woman imagining the specific people who were coming rather than the general category of grandchildren.
Callum came from Vancouver, which required a longer journey and was non-negotiable.
He and Claire sat in the garden on the second afternoon while the ot
