All For Love

Enthusiastic Ella gets her dad thinking about the little things that say ‘I love you’

- Ginny Swart

Hello, poppet. How’s my girl?” Simon dropped his briefcase and swung four-year-old Ella up over his head. “Did you have a good day?”

“Yes, thank you. Now put me down,” she commanded. “And look at my scrapbook, Daddy. See what I’m making for Granny.”

Simon bent down to inspect Ella’s handiwork. “My, that’s nice and bright,” he said. “Well cut too. You’re pretty good with the scissors these days, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” said Ella with satisfaction.

A pile of old birthday and Christmas cards was spread on the floor around a big scrapbook with pictures pasted crookedly across the open page.

“Mommy said I could cut up all these old cards. Then Granny can look at it when she comes to tea. Don’t you like this Christmas tree?”

“Very nice,” he murmured, thinking how adorable his little daughter looked with the late afternoon sunshine beaming down on her blonde locks. Exactly like her mother.

“And these flowers, look. And this is a reindeer. I’m going to put him next to the flowers so he can eat them. Do you think reindeer eat flowers, Daddy?”

Simon was saved from answering this by Kelly coming up the passage.

“Hello, darling. I didn’t hear you come in,” she said. “I was on the phone to Mum.”

“How’s she doing? Settled in now?”

Kelly’s mother, Harriet, had just moved into a flat and the choice of what to take with her from the family home and what to sell or give away had been difficult.