We needed this

“Is it too late to escape for an hour?” She wrote. We'd each had our youngest stuck to us for most of the day or the one before, battling temperatures. Viral, soon to pass the doctor said, but it meant they clung to us like teary koalas. So we took an hour (okay, maybe 90 minutes). To breathe in the sea air, get lucky with a sunny seat outside The Black Cat, to chat and laugh and check in.

The quickest of catch-ups, as we were both on the hook for bedtime. And it's such a small thing, but a big one too – to take the time to be seen, to carve out a moment for each other as whole people and not just mamas. To remind ourselves that we can be there for our under-the-weather daughters, and also for each other.

As Jules Acree put it: “I want to give her everything. And I want to keep something for myself, too.”