By Eve Bell

We spent half term in Dubai. I’ve been a few times as my husband works out there for periods through the year. I will never get used to the speed of it, I have to brace myself for it. A city that feels like it is never enough. With a skyline of tall buildings that feel like they are trying to touch tomorrow. There’s something exhilarating about it though, the efficiency, the mind-blowingly good service. But beneath that surface, I always feel like I’m running to keep up. The city’s pace catches up with me before I’m ready.

Then, the morning after we returned home, everything stopped. We received the news that my husband’s grandma had passed away. She was 92. A life that had slowed long before ours, but one that had never lost its warmth and spark.

In her later years, as age stripped away the things she once loved to do, she adapted. She found happiness in observing, in sharing in our family’s moments, in seeing us live and love. Our joy was her joy, and it was all that mattered to her.

In watching us with eyes that held both love and the sharp, knowing glance that said she was still very much present. Sometimes her comments were laced with warmth. Other times, they came with the kind of brutal honesty that made us laugh and a reminder that she was still very much part of life around her.

As I sat in that quiet stillness the morning we heard the news, what struck me was how much she had taught us without ever trying to.

Life for her had become a simple truth: joy is found in the happiness of those you love. Our smiles were her world. And, of course, dogs. She always said dogs were better than humans. She often said that every home should have one because they teach you a love that is pure and unselfish.

In that moment, the noise of Dubai felt distant. The cars, the neon, and the rush seemed small. They were nothing compared to the wisdom of a life that knew how to be still.

The most profound moments are often the quietest. We find them when we stop and allow ourselves to simply be. Just as she did.

I will never forget the wisdom she passed down. In the busy-ness of life, it’s easy to forget that there is such beauty in the quietest moments. Just watching life and letting love be enough.

Thank you Betty x