From Child

“You never once tried to take a place that was already entirely spoken for. You went and built a new one instead, and you did it without making any fuss.”

“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 have started doing the thing where I check everyone got home before I go to sleep. I used to find it unbearable when you did it. I now understand exactly why.”

“It took me until this age to work out that you were a whole person before me. With your own plans and your own nerves and nobody telling you if you had it right.”

“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.”

“You did most of it while nobody was watching and nobody was saying thanks. I was far too young to notice then. I have had years to work it out since.”

“The first voice I ever knew was yours, and it is still the one I hear. It turns up whenever I am deciding something difficult, and it helps.”

“You are about to become somebody's whole world, and you do not know it yet. They will not remember this part. I will, and I am already proud.”

“You walked into a house that already had its own rules and its own history. You did not try to rewrite any of it. You learned it, and then you added something.”

“Everybody is about to give you advice that you did not ask for, so here is none. Only this. I have watched you look after people for years and you are ready.”

“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.”