This blog is dedicated to my other ‘sons’! As my children have grown up, through my food business, and since blogging, I have a few more ‘sons’. One young man who ‘adopted’ us as his real family some years ago (he had school holidays with us a lot); he brought up the self designed ‘paperwork for adoption’ to sign, and calls himself Son Number 1. He is very good friends and went to school with my youngest son, and is a friend with our whole family, and… I do almost love him like a son. He even teases my sons about the Subaru WRX being left to him in the will! A few weeks ago, he was at a party with my youngest son, and after one or two (?) beers, they started to text me about Josh having taken up smoking again! It was the middle of the night, but thankfully I was still awake as it was  fun to be in the middle of their texting banter.  It was harmless fun that I felt honoured to have been included in. I feel very motherly towards a number of other young men who went to school with my children, and love having their friendships continue beyond the school yard. There are also three ‘older’ men, two of them now 30 and one turning 30 in April this year who I also love almost like sons. They initially worked for me as student volunteers, commandeered by their Headmaster as senior students to be part of my waiting and kitchen staff team for a Jesuit Headmasters dinner I was cooking. I trained them up enough to get through that night, and then offered them work in their holidays. Back then I had a head waiter called Branko, who was a little crazy, but he was good at his job and trained them well; they worked for me throughout their senior school year and university life. Their first official job (all under the age of 18), was at an offsite function, one I had accepted, but at the time didn’t know the venue for the booking. When I discovered, and much to my horror, the Christmas function was to be held in a strip club, I felt a little panicked! Not only did I have to phone all of the parents of these young men to explain what was ahead and why, I had to allow for the fact they may not have been allowed to work that day. I would then have had the drama of finding staff at quite short notice, at a very busy time of the year. The client and venue promised there would be no strippers present; it was simply a private booking being held at the venue during ‘off peak’ hours. However on the day, we discovered (!), there was to be a ‘tasteful’ transvestite show. It was, and remains one of the funnier events I was involved in catering for, and these young men have lived on to keep the tale alive. The Deputy Headmaster and Jesuit Priest  came up to me the following weekend when I was cooking my regular Sunday meal for the Jesuit community in Adelaide, saying (with rather a cheeky smile) he was glad I was able to provide a broader education for some of the students of the College!! Two of these young men are currently living in the UK, so it will be a delight to visit them when we are there in March. My other ‘sons’ are from the bloggers conference in Queensland last year. Whilst they live interstate, their care for me on that weekend, and their keen interest in my life as a person living with dementia was humbling. Although they would in no way feel like family, those I have stayed in touch with do feel a little like sons to me. My parents befriended various male school teachers when I was a school student, and they felt like ‘older brothers’ to me at the time. Mum and Dad have stayed in touch where possible with these men, and recently had a meal with one of them, who said he had started his career with them, and as he had just resigned, was now finishing his career with them. They felt, like I do now, humbled by the friendship of someone so much younger than them. People come into our lives, and sometimes into our hearts, and remain there forever, and for me, this is one of the rarest and greatest gifts of life.