Chosen Family

“I had a key to your house long before anybody discussed whether that was sensible. It was simply on the hook one day and nobody ever said a word about it afterwards.”

“I made a promise about you in front of a room full of witnesses. I would have kept it with nobody watching at all, and I still will.”

“There were things I could not take home and say out loud at that kitchen table. You were close enough to understand them and far enough that I could say them at all.”

“You came to the things that nobody would have blamed you for missing. The concerts, the long ceremonies, the ones that ran on in the rain.”

“The job was meant to be looking after you and steering you sensibly along. Somewhere along the way you turned into somebody I actually ask for an opinion.”

“You promised to look after me before I was old enough to know what a promise was. And you have been standing just behind me ever since, quiet and entirely there.”

“I made a promise about you when you were far too new to notice. I had no idea then that keeping it would turn out to be the easy part of it.”

“I was at your table so often that you just quietly stopped counting me a guest. There was always a plate going and nobody ever made me ask for one.”

“It is a role most people take on and then quietly let go of after a few years. You turned up to every single thing for decades without being reminded once.”