Three generations

Frieda, my one year old granddaughter; her mother, Marianna (my son Jack's partner); and Marianna's mother Liana.   We spent much of today doing a walk in the White Peak in South Derbyshire: Dovedale, a riverside walk between high limestone crags.
Marianna is Greek, and her parents live in Athens. And so we see Liana and Iannis a few times a year, if all goes well - sometimes here, sometimes there. I know that Marianna misses them a great deal.
This year, with Covid, none of our plans went as we had hoped. I should have been travelling to Greece by train and ferry in April, with Jack and Marianna and Frieda, for some time with Marianna's family. But of course lockdown came, and there followed months in which we could only see each other via Zoom.  Even though Jack, Frieda and Marianna only live the other side of Sheffield, we could only have phonecalls, Zoom or waves from a distance.  We made the best of it, like other families.
Finally the infection numbers have gone down... Jack and Marianna and Frieda spent some time in Greece in July and now Liana has had a week here in Sheffield. I know how much she will miss Frieda, in particular, when she goes home to Greece.  Infections are on the rise again, both here and in Greece, and so it's great that we have managed some time together this summer... these recent weeks may prove to be just a lull in the Covid story.