The Icing on Our Cake

The last few weeks have gone by so fast and I have wanted to cherish every moment of our time with Krish before she intrepidly ventures forth in that big wide world... I am so excited for her but at the same time gutted that she is leaving us, moving forward but without us... until now we have shared so much with her and virtually everything we have done, we have experienced it together but now it will be others you share her dreams and we will undoubtedly become spectators, with possibly the rare cameo appearances at special events. I wish I could have a special Life I-Player which enables me to replay all those fantastic moments of her childhood: the annual birthday parties with clowns and character cakes. Every year, the birthday party would be a major project to organise... my sister Alka would be enrolled as the party planner and we would decide what this year's feature would be: one year we had the party in the local village hall with a mad magician and lots of smelly egg mayo sandwiches; another year it was a bouncy castle in our back garden, with a chocolate caterpillar cake, which went down a treat. As she grew older the parties disappeared only to be replaced by insomniac sleepovers when the entire house would be swamped by friends and if we stayed we would be banished to our bedroom for 24 hours with no access to any other part of our home... so of course we would disappear to a local restaurant until we knew it was safe to return. In more recent years, she would go out with her best friends for a meal followed by cocktails in their favourite Moroccan style bar with golden globes, and deep, rich red resting places with comfy cushions eastern embroidered. Symbolically, like a pivotal turning point, this year, her 18th birthday brought friends and family together to celebrate a key milestone ... excited that she had grown up into a beautiful human being and proud of her achievements to date and already anticipating those yet to come...simultaneously there was a sadness as we said goodbye to our little girl and our cosy family set up. Next year when she is in Beijing, it will be the first time when she celebrates her birthday without us... I wonder curiously what this will be like for her and for us... I for one will raise a glass of champers at 12.30pm on 14th March 2011 and say thank you Krish for being the icing on our cake.