The video call comes through on What’s App, and although we are just about to sit down for supper, we eagerly answer.  It’s from Spain, from Spanish Daughter #2, who stayed with us in 2018-2019. 

She is home.  Spain has returned to its earliest levels of infection, and early September is rivaling March’s entry into the long stay-home orders.  School is “postponed”, she tells us—or at least this is what they are saying.  She is not convinced, and their determined march back towards a pre-virus world has been thwarted and challenged. 

But, it means that she is home and can call us.  She should be going to sleep.  “But there is no school now anyway.  What difference does it make what time I go to bed?  I have nothing going on anymore!” 

We put her in the middle of the table while we eat, rotating the phone around so she can see who is speaking.  Soon son number two is pushing his point on something, and she ribs him back.  My husband is teasing her, my daughter throws in a few questions… It was just like she was with us again, and that no time had passed.  A true silver lining to our day!