For Your Eyes Only [h.s.]

Ch. 86 - Six Months Later

Harry Styles
October 14 ,2023
The Country Home

"Harry, darling can you make use of yourself a bit?" Mum says to me, hip bumping me into action. She's balancing wrapped presents and a plethora of table decorations in her arms as she scurries all over the first floor of the house helping everyone put finishing touches on every last detail. I mean, we have hand towels in the bathroom that we special ordered for the party, truly no detail has been forgotten. I place more and more photos from the last few months along the fireplace mantle, as the party planners finish setting up dessert tables and spots for presents. 

Adelaide has gone all out for Annie's first birthday. Somehow the last year of our lives has flown by not only in ways they warn you about; "she'll grow so fast," and the like, but it's also flown in ways we didn't expect. When Adelaide's memories came back, there was of course an adjustment that came with it....

I had to tell Adelaide that Griffin died in the accident, and she mourned that loss for a great while. 

It didn't sit as well as we'd all hoped, that Adelaide's mom basically considered the memory loss a built in do-over. Addy is so stubborn that I think she didn't want to let it go just to prove a point, rather than anything that reflected how she actually felt. 

We dealt with quite a bit in the last six months let alone the year since Annie was born. But really, aside from those more impactful adjustments, life went back to normal quickly and then moved on hyper speed somehow. 

I've chosen to embrace Adelaide's obsession with the camera. All the memories we've made, now precious photos we've printed and framed. Currently I'm trying to put them into chronological order which is proving harder than I expected. I only have one kid, but even still it feels like a puzzle trying to keep dates and milestones in order.

She's thrown in some photos that don't have Annie in them, but mark a special moment in the last year or so since her birth. Like the one the morning of my birthday with the breakfast she made me to have in bed... but I didn't want to have it alone, so I brought it downstairs to have it with my girls. We opened up all the doors and snuggled under a million blankets in front of a fire. It was perfect, even if Annie threw up at the end and needed a changing.

Even on those days, the messy ones where we looked at each other knowing we were in over our heads as new parents. Not once did we question that we were exactly where we wanted to be. I mean, when Adelaide's memories returned something shifted for me.

I called Jeff and said no one should contact us unless I update them beforehand. We wanted, and have had, complete privacy. Time to be a family. After Adelaide was, better, for a lack of a better word, all our priorities changed. 

I took a note from an old friend, and made it so the entire world didn't see us. Our security was tightened, family and friends informed, and then we allowed ourselves to be sucked into a private little bubble here at home. Time is too precious, creating memories too important. I haven't missed a single moment of the last year. Adelaide and I haven't spent a day apart in the last year. It's been a quiet life, and while I can't say that I don't miss the excitement of my life, a quiet life has been a wonderful life.

Just the three of us.