A Wish for Snow

A simple lockdown wish from The Roaring Girls' Sarah. My Nanna has always loved the snow. She waits for it every year.

She has a little board on top of the fireplace where the family can write down what they wish for. Hers last month, was for it to snow.

On the rare occasion that it does, she hobbles out into the garden, stands in the middle of the grass and my Bampa takes a picture of her. He upgraded to a smart phone a couple of years ago, so his Nanna-smiling-in-the-snow picture game has really gone up, quality wise. The only reason he upgraded his phone in the first place was so that he could get better pictures of his wife of fifty-three years!

I woke up this morning to three videos of the snow from my family in Wales.

White blankets covering the hilltops, gardens and rooves of houses. I immediately thought of my Nanna, and my sister said that she had been awake since 5 o’clock this morning watching it out of the window, no doubt waiting for my Bampa to wake up so she could be helped outside to stand in it for her yearly picture.

My sister also video called me to show me my niece (Charlotte, nearly two) sledding, with a pink glittery bobble hat, Peppa Pig scarf and wellies beaming from ear to ear. She was fascinated by it and I wish I were there now, to build a snowman with her.

I remember the last time it properly, properly snowed in Hull.

It was 2013. I was in my first year of university and it was like a blizzard. We dressed up warm and ran out the back ten foot to build a 7-foot tall snowguy with a carrot for a nose and a creepy child’s mitten for a hand that was dropped down the alley. (Why are lost children’s gloves so creepy, yet the most likely to be dropped?) We had a huge snowball fight and then drew penises into the frost on the student neighbour cars. I’ll admit, it wasn’t as wholesome as my Nanna standing in the snow for a picture, but it was a lot of fun.

I’d give anything now, for a snow day or to be snowed in. I mean, in this current climate it doesn’t make a difference as I’m not bloody going anywhere – but I love looking out of the window to see everything so crisp and clean. Just for a few hours, litter is buried, the tarmac is refreshed, and the empty branches of the trees take on a different character. It feels like a Dickensian novel. Well, until you see people pelting ice at passing cars and drawing frosty penises on cars, anyway.

I might ask my Nanna to pop a wish on her wish board for me.

I can pop one on for you too if you’d like.

I wish for it to snow.

You?

Sarah's niece, Charlotte, tobogganing in rainbow wellies and a sparkly hat, looking adorable.