Of course, I wasn't the only anxious mum waiting in the arrivals hall nervously flitting from announcement boards to the sliding doors and soaking up the emotional atmosphere of couples, friends and families being re-united.
Kerry Katona was also there.
With platinum blonde hair (part-shaven, a la mode) and trendy specs, she was dressed down in green parka, joggers and Uggs; just another mum waiting for that special moment when, in the throng of anonymous faces, the person you adore walks through the sliding doors.
I say she's just like me, apart from the fact that she was waiting for offspring shared with a world-renowned singer-songwriter and international television star from a chart-topping boy band, and she's much younger than me!
But despite her public eye working life (on Wikipedia, Kerry is summed up as "television and media personality, actress, singer, author and presenter" - phew!) and having appeared in more newspapers and magazines than I've had hot dinners, she was perfectly happy to stand and chat to a fellow mum.
The usually grid-locked M25 had been surprisingly free-flowing so she had misjudged her journey from home in Surrey and ended up with a long wait for Molly and Lilly-Sue to arrive back from Dublin. Like my son, they had been to stay with dad for Christmas, leaving younger siblings behind. Another young family, un-blended for Christmas (see previous blog).
Like me, Kerry is a working mum whose life usually operates at about 100mph so it's a strange sensation to find you've nothing to do except pace from announcement board to sliding doors. Of course, for Kerry this anxious wait was occasionally interrupted by fans holding an iPhone at arms length and grinning inanely with their face squished next to hers.
Like a true pro, she assured me she didn't mind and politely promised to read my blog. I joked that I have about twelve twitter followers and she admitted that she has 'one or two' more. About 174,000 more it turns out. Well, hope you like it Kerry and here's the return of favour, check out www.kerrykatona.biz where she looks rather fabulous I have to say (please tweet my blog Kerry!!).
Joking apart, it was genuinely lovely to meet a kindred spirit and a down-to-earth celeb. As the doors slid back to bring a smile to Kerry's face, right behind Molly and Lilly-Sue was my reason to smile, a handsome young man who makes me more proud than he will ever know.
So, maybe the true metaphor for a 'blended' family is more akin to the old jigsaw than mushy soup (see previous blog). Where the pieces don't have smooth edges and don't make any sense by themselves but, if you wait patiently enough in the Gatwick arrivals hall, the blobs will instantly fit back into the holes and the picture will be complete (until the Easter hols anyway!!).
To segue seemlessly into the blog below, maybe I should mention that Kerry Katona was born at Warrington Hospital.....confused new readers, please read on, it is relevant......(sort of)
