She's gone!

Well, yesterday evening we said goodbye/au revoir to  daughter no.2 who left from Heathrow terminal 5 for Uganda for two whole years!!  It has been a crazy couple of days since she returned home with all her worldly goods, having given up her flat in Brixton.  There was much photocopying, sifting through clothes, books, medicines, photos, professional journals etc etc in order to get to under 24kg which was all she could take in one case plus two pieces of hand luggage laptop size!!!  Imagine for two years putting your life in a suitcase weighing no more than 24kg!!!  She did amazingly well.  Daughters 1 and 3 took yesterday off work to be with her and help (daughter no.4 is in Egypt just now - don't ask!) and after the case was packed we sat down to escape from all the emotion of it to watch "Howl's moving castle" - a cartoon which I had never seen before but which, right enough, did provide just the right amount of interest and imaginative storyline for escape.  Never mind the fact that we had a carpenter here sawing wood for the airing cupboard and the BT man to fix a broken telephone wire!!!!  It was utter chaos and the house looked as though a bomb had hit it.  But no matter, we had our time together and then headed for the airport amidst the sounds of Magic on the radio as a bit of fun (there are a variety of tastes in music in the family but in times of crisis we have been known to listen to Magic!!) then a trot around the new terminal building which is very smart indeed, with time for a coffee and then it was goodbye.  I was in 'coping' mode for the most part but nearly lost it right at the end when she moved into the security area.  It will be a life-changing two years I have no doubt and I have heard today that she arrived safely for which I am really grateful.