I tried to remind Dean and Mei that we first met at a pancake shop on Lygon Street.
That they were the first group of people I met in Melbourne, my seniors at a residential college.
Of course, their faces drew a blank because it was 10 years ago.
And that pancake shop is no longer there.
What I was trying to get to, is that they were sitting next to me, and they were holding hands.
And Dean couldn’t stop caressing Mei’s hands, and the knee the hands were on, sometimes her ears.
Highly inappropriate from a FOB’s point of view back then.
And probably also a little creepy to have that thought when shooting their family portrait 10 years later.
So maybe it was a good thing the conversation didn’t go that way.
But if you were there with me that Friday, seeing them trying to keep up with Damien, their 4 year old iron-boy.
Trying so hard to make him smile, and then not smile, and then not cry.
Bathing in that golden hour of sun light, you’d understand.
Why I had to think about 10 years ago.
Because that affection they displayed then, is simply a direct cause to their lives now.
Because they were happy, therefore they are happy.
