When I was nine years old my mother decided to put on a bumper Easter lunch, it would be the first gathering of the whole clan- our family of five and both sets of grandparents, for quite a while.

Easter Morning E card

Easter week was a perfect spring postcard. The blossoms were budding on the branches in our garden by the sea and a little snail of crocuses lined the path down to the Summerhouse. I was volunteered to pick some daises to sprinkle in painted eggcups, my reluctant brothers to fetch daffodils for the vases. On Easter Saturday we all pitched in to lay a special table with yellow candles and napkins and tiny fluffy chicks perched on the table centerpiece. But on the side plates, where usually an Easter egg wrapped in a colourful ribbon would sit, there was nothing!