He’s leaving home … bye bye….. a portrait of Luke

It’s time –

it comes to every mother in the end – and sure enough at the highly appropriate age of 19 my baby boy now has a flat in St Etienne –

Home...

it’s in his own name;  he’ll have his own electricity bills, pay for his own food…

Sweet...

do his own washing…

home...

and things will never quite be the same again!

I’m the eldest of four sisters…

Me with Tara Sasha and Sophie

…and  when I went off excitedly to Bristol University in 1980,  I found out years later that my sister Sasha referred to it as ” the time you broke up the family!” I had no idea that anyone felt my absence so strongly!

Very clever...

Luke’s 19 now – he’s such a wonderful confident easy-going and talented young man. He’s studying English language, literature and civilisation at Jean Monnet University.  After the enormous challenge of getting a science baccalaureate in his second language at lycée, he can now spend a few years with a bit of an academic advantage (seeing as he already has a pretty good grasp of English!). I’m hoping this will free him up to get a little job, play and write a lot of music..

Here's a little song I wrote...

…dance (he is an amazing dancer  – what a surprise that was the first time I saw him on stage)

…and maybe play a bit of sport (alongside his coursework of course!)

Gonna have to introduce the French to cricket!

So having built the bus with us,  taken his GCSEs in the UK, and then hit the road en famille for a year of travelling – helping with the home-schooling and bus maintenance, Luke courageously launched himself into French lycée. He was ready for that too at 17, ready to have a bunch of friends the same age. But to actually acheive his goal and get his Science Bac shows real bottle. Last summer he worked on the “If you ever get to heaven” film shoot, writing the final-concert song. He was also a huge support on the crew: such a solid hard-working and positive energy to have around.

Father and sons - on the set!

So the appartment he’s found is in the centre of town. It’s small (24 square metres), but it has two balconies,  a lovely landlady, and he has a good friend who rents the apartment across the landing.

To maximise the use of space, Joe designed a brilliant free-standing mezzanine bed area.

Watching Luke and Joe build it together the weekend he moved in brought back memory after memory…

Learning how it's done...

Building the bed...

A perfect fit...

and it works a treat!

The family dynamic has changed at home, but you know that’s exciting too.

We all miss him …but he’s in a good place –

Good Luck Baby