When I was a little girl in Cape Town where I was born, I was blessed with loving parents loved to play games with their kids.  One of them was "How much do you love me?" And we would attempt to outdo each other in words with the amount of love we had for each other.  My father in particular, a master of the English language, And often a great exaggerator, would conjure up all sorts of magical, astronomical, incredible amounts of love he felt for me.  My mother would squeeze me and kiss me all over and just say "I love you this much!"

But the biggest, most extravagant, infinite number and the largest amount of money I could imagine in our humble lives was 'two bob' (two shillings), and that became my response.  "I love you two bob!"  That delighted them, they always laughed when I said that.

It remained that way all through my life, when my Mom would hug me or my Dad would hold my face in his hands and say "I love you to the stars, the moon, and the sky and back" or they might laugh or whisper in passing "How much do you love me?" My response was always the same.

Cino and I were on the beach this morning, there was a flat blue ocean with a single wave breaking at regular intervals on the shore, and not another soul in sight.  I often feel my parents walking alongside of me, as I did today, and it came to me again, eight years after their deaths. 

"I love you two bob, Mom and Dad, I love you two bob."