Remembering Erika

As Charlie's beloved grandmother, Yaya Erika, passed away at the end of 2010, his mother held a memorial day for her today at her house in Brighton. Yesterday would have been her 85th birthday. Around 40 people were there as we chatted (in my case, mostly about impending baby!), heard about the experience of the Jews in Thessalonika, and shared precious thoughts and emotions in celebration of Erika's incredible life.

It was overwhelmingly emotional, and I was very proud of Charlie and little Erika for speaking and sharing their thoughts too.

Lovely to spend time with the family and seeing such a wide group of people before the baby comes along, though it was a long day. We fortunately didn't need to wait too long for our train at Brighton, and even skipped on to a faster train at Hove when meant we were back home at 10:30 rather than midnight.

Andrew popped round to say hi to Mum and Dad, as they head off on Monday, and then we all fell exhausted into bed.