When my brother and I were little, we spent an awful lot of time playing with two girls who were friends of the family. They were Gemma, who is few years older than me, and Rebecca, who is just a couple of months older than me, and we were constantly at each other's houses playing elaborate games in the gardens.
One of my best early memories is of going to a soft play centre with both families and Rebecca and I (aged about 4?) bravely scaling a long rope ladder to a pirate ship's crows nest suspended above a thick foam mat. We were very excited to do this and felt a wonderful sense of achievement at reaching the top. Looking back, it probably wasn't all that high, but to use then being small, it felt like we'd scaled Everest!
Once we'd finished congratulating ourselves we peered nervously over the edge of the crow's nest and immediately were terrified beyond belief at the dizzy-making gulf between us and the floor. Needless to say there was much yelling and panic until Rebecca's dad climbed up to fetch us...
Not very pirate-like I think you'll agree...
ANYWAY....
This attic treasure is really special. I still think it's one of the sweetest gifts I've ever been given. My family had spent a day with Gemma and Rebecca's family and at some point I had been doodling as I nearly always was. I drew a little picture of me, my parents and my big brother Matt. Once it was finished I promptly forgot about it and left it probably on the floor of one of the girl's bedrooms. I think this would be around the time of the Incident with the Crow's Nest, so again, I was about 4 maybe?
Imagine my surprise then when, a couple of weeks later when we were all together again, Gemma and Rebecca's mum, Angela, presented me this:
Angela had found my drawing and had made a little embroidered picture from my original line work.
I remember not really being able to get my head around how she had done it, but was really touched by it as I still am now. I had it hung on my bedroom wall right up until around the time I went to university, when it was taken down when my old bedroom at my parent's house was redecorated.
I'm so happy to have found it again and will be putting it on my studio wall with all my other special treasures.
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