How would you show a specific entry 'and' its children

Question

I'm creating a footer menu and want to show an entry id and its children, atm I'm just getting the descendants but struggling to show the parent and children as well

<nav class="cell small-12">

    <ul class="nested  menu vertical">

        {% set entries = craft.entries.section('pages').descendantOf(8) %}

        <p>{{ entry.parent }}</p>

        {% nav entry in entries %}

        <li><a class="c-main-nav__li__a" href="{{ entry.url }}">{{ entry.title }}</a>

            {% ifchildren %}
            <ul class="menu vertical sub-items">
                {% children %}
            </ul>
            {% endifchildren %}

        </li>

        {% endnav %}

    </ul>

</nav>

Appreciate this is the wrong approach any feedback appreciated on how to display the title of id 8 as well as its children, atm parent.entry is not showing

Answer 1

Try merging like this

{% set parent = craft.entries.section('pages').id(8) %}

{% set entries = craft.entries.section('pages').descendantOf(8).limit(1) %}

{% set entries = parent|merge(entries) %}

{% for entry in entries.all() %}
  output your entries here
{% endfor %}