“We need to leave at 11 o’clock on the dot” said my mother “and not a moment later.” We were driving to Kent to have lunch with her sister. The two had been inseparable all of their lives, sharing a deep uncomplicated love.
My Aunt, however, was the older sister and therefore not someone to be trifled with. As children, when playing a game of horse and rider, my Aunt was always the rider and my mother always the horse. My mother aged 87 was still considered much younger than my Aunt at 93. And we could not keep my Aunt waiting.
We arrived in the nick of time. The two sisters greeted each other eagerly on the steps of my Aunt’s handsome home.
After lunch they read aloud to each other from Hilaire Belloc’s ‘Cautionary Verses,’ chuckling together at the ridiculous tales.
I watched them from across the drawing room, two women in striking good health, who had both led extraordinary lives.
As we drove away I asked my mother about their beauty regimes. “Your Aunt would never have consciously had a regime, she only ever believed in standing up straight and taking some form of exercise each day” she paused for thought “and I‘m sure I always got the regime wrong, is it toning first and cleansing next? Are you even meant to tone now-a-days?” I confessed I did not know.
What I did know was that the beauty products I have created are all blended with very gentle ingredients, we have removed all the harsh ones, and taken out the horrible nasties and really concentrated on their fragrance. I wanted my collection to translate the sight of a pink sand beach, the intensity of a tropical evening and the smell of warm English rain and rose gardens. My beauty and fragrance collections are about treasured moments and memories.
My mother approved. “And about a life well-lived” she added. “Oh yes, it’s certainly about living life well” I replied.
They must reside together in a time and place that no longer exists?
What they have weather together makes them very modern, indeed.
Melissa
I love your Aunt! I’m named after her (and my father’s regiment). Please give her my very, very best wishes.