Fairy Moments

Sometimes you just want to freeze time… I had such a moment yesterday, and it still makes me smile.

So, over the last few weeks, E has been a little bit quiet and upset – usually just at home, and more in the evening – contrasting with the bubbly and outgoing nature she’s exhibiting at school. When I heard her cry in her bed the other night, I went in and finally got out what was bugging her. She felt homesick for her friends back in England, because there was something she couldn’t talk about with any of her friends here, and it was making her sad. So this is what it was: E has had a fairy for the last 4 or 5 years, who visits quite regularly, leaving little notes and sometimes gifts. Every now and then things go silent, and she doesn’t hear from her fairy for months. Anyway, she was upset because she had left some notes out recently but never heard anything back from the fairy, and was now worried something might have happened to her, or that she was getting too old for fairy visits, and her fairy had decided to quit. And she had nobody to talk to about her worries.. It broke my heart to see her so upset, almost 10 years old and still such a sweet child, surrounded by precocious know-it-alls (which pretty much applies to any girl that age, and I’m sure anywhere in the world, not just here). So yesterday, the fairy came back. E had lost a tooth, and put it under her pillow. She was playing in her room close to bedtime when something brushed past her nose, and when she looked up, there was fairy dust all over her pillow and a coin was there instead of her tooth (some cheeky fairy, to bounce in during the DAY and not at night). It was magical. When E climbed into her bed at night she noticed fairy dust not just on her pillow,  but in the air around her. Tiny golden particles were dancing like tiny fairies all over her bed, through the air, over her head. E’s face was pure joy, and I quickly took a mental photograph of her gorgeous, happy little face. When I said to her she was allowed to read for another ten minutes, she just smiled at me and said: “No, mummy, I will just sit here and watch the fairy sparkles dance.” I will treasure this magical moment forever. My beautiful little girl, may you never lose your innocent fairy spirit!