Capturing a last time

A highlight of Easter is visiting the children’s grandparents in Dorset. They LOVE the Easter egg hunt in their beautiful garden. Five years ago, I took this picture of my youngest in full joy, finding her chocolate treats. I love this picture in so many ways – the sheer delight; excitement; running to find the next treat; the obvious pleasure of her grandfather in the background watching her. It’s not a perfect picture but it’s a perfect moment.

Last year, in a moment of inspiration, I asked her to reproduce the image as we ran around the garden collecting the treats. I loved marking the changes four years had brought. How much taller; hair longer; the garden changed. Photography has such a wonderful way of capturing the essence of now (and then).

So, this year, armed with my camera, and the children’s wide-eyed expectations, we embarked on our trip to Dorset. Only to be told, there were no Easter eggs this year. The children were deemed too old, and the weather too miserable. Cue: crestfallen faces, including my own.

My mother always says there are things in life that are your way of life for so long. You do them again and again, but you never know when you do that thing for the last time. She speaks wistfully about how she would take my brother to sit on motorcyles outside a shop and how much he loved it. ‘You think it will go on and on, and then suddenly you realise there was a last time that you did it and the moment has passed.’

It’s a reason I am almost always with my camera. Because you never know when something that is so integrated into your life now, is the last time you will do it.

At least with a photograph, you can hold on to those moments that tiny bit longer.