Surprise for Mudge.... — Steve Chivers Photography

Mudge…our mum, “Queenie”, the Matriarch and centre of our family.

I don’t believe in going backwards in life and firmly believe in forging ahead and making the most of what life has to offer. However, that two years of COVID lockdown impacted us all in so many different ways.

We were luckier than most and we got through it relatively unscathed. We all have our COVID stories (see my Blog “Creativity in Adversity) but Mudge and her partner Brian had a very difficult time of it. Locked down in Spain, some of the rules were particularly draconian regarding movement and other than our regular Zoom calls, no-one was able to visit for over 18 months.

So in brighter times and by putting that behind us, we are now determined to make up for some lost time.

Whilst Mrs. C and I and my brother Phil and his wife Jackie are now able to make regular visits, one thing that we knew Mudge really wanted was to have all her grandchildren together under one roof at our family home in Spain.

Now when I say grandchildren I actually mean working adults and their various partners. Everyone is super busy with life and work commitments so how could we possibly make the planets align and get everybody over to Spain at the same time.

Well, where there is a will there is a way. Some 8 months ago we floated the idea and everyone was up for it. Diaries were checked and co-ordinated and flights covertly booked. We told Mudge that just the four of us were coming over. Was she in for a surprise when 11 people would turn up on her doorstep.

Our thanks to her partner Brian, who we took in to confidence and in fact lent us his house, as it would be a logistical operation just to give everyone a bed for the night.

After the usual budget-flight delays, we all finally arrived at Alicante Airport, hire cars were collected and we headed off down the motorway to Los Alcazares. When we arrived at home the four of us went in and left the kids outside. When we brought Mudge out on to the terrace and she saw a row of grinning faces I can’t tell you how happy she was. Although I am a photographer and always seek to capture the “moment of emotional impact” I didn’t. I just watched and enjoyed!

Now regular readers will know that life with the Chivs involves family, food, drink and more food! So, next morning, we all headed off the the shores of the Mar Menor for our long overdue family breakfast.

We are lucky that my brother is a trained Chef and has his own catering consultancy specializing in Industrial catering. For with 13 mouths to feed every day it would be industrial catering and we needed a plan.

As usual it was not a problem and we kept it simple. So it was fire up the Barbie and yes even after all the wine I still have my eyebrows intact! although, after much “advice” from Mudge and ably supported by Mrs. C., the beard is now gone and I am told I look like my old self. According to Mrs. C. a cross between Brad Pitt and George Clooney…..hmmmm what is she after?

Alcohol, fire and gas…What could possibly go wrong?

Jackie and Harry just had to have a paddle

In my happy place - If you listen carefully you can hear Mudge moaning about my beard!

The rest of the week followed a similar trend of eating, drinking and making up for lost time. It made me so happy but what I really wanted was a family photo to remember it by.

Now trying to corral everyone in to a posable format whilst keeping their eyes open was something to behold and my admiration goes out to all wedding photographers. You couldn’t pay me enough to do that job. So I used the old “lets pull a funny face” to loosen everyone up.

Crikey no amount of post processing can fix this one :-)

However, I eventually got the image I was looking for.

I found this short blog so difficult to write; mainly because its so difficult to type with tears in my eyes. In all this happiness there was one person that I missed so much, my dear old dad. He would have had such a wonderful time with all his grandchildren around him. I made a few promises to my dad before he sadly passed which you can be sure I am in the process of keeping. However, I don’t mean to end this short blog on a sad note as I firmly believe he was there and smiling down on all of us.

Thank you to all the family for making the effort and for a fabulous time together. I love you all and lets make sure we make this a regular event because in my world, family keeps us all together and that’s what makes us stronger.

See you all again soon.