10th December 2012 – a day that will stay with me and my family forever… 16 years earlier I had been blessed at 35 with a lovely son, brother to Louise and Leanne, aged 15 and 13. A bit of a surprise, but he brought so much joy to our lives. On the Sunday we all
My bright loving son died at the age of just 18. He came home from university for Christmas, full of life and excitement at seeing his friends again and telling us how much he was enjoying Southampton studying geophysics. On the morning of 2nd January 1982 I sat on his bed, asking him what he would
The morning of 8th December was just like any other Sunday; Stephen woke up to get ready for football while I stopped in bed. Stephen said goodbye and gave me a kiss and said “see you later”. He went outside and changed the cars around so he could drive his to football, then he came back
The New Year 2013 started with a lovely New Year’s Eve and a coastal walk of 4 miles the next day, for a pub lunch with friends. Jonathan rang me, from Sweden, later that day to wish me a Happy Birthday and a Happy New Year. A call from Jon was always the icing on the
It is hard to predict what will happen each day, but most days are variations on a theme. Friday 19th of May 2011 felt like a normal day when I woke up, but I never went to sleep that night. At 8.00pm I was informed by a police officer that my little sister Sophia, 19 years
1st February 2012: me, my brother, my mum and dad all woke up to start a normal day at college and work, not realising that this day was going to change our lives forever and tip our world upside-down. It was 4pm and we were all home. Me and my best friend were having our tea;
I’m not sure where to begin. I was present when my brother Martyn died in hospital on 11th July 2005. He was only 19 and it was the worst day of my life.Everything changed from that moment forward, including relationships with my family and especially my friends. I became a new person. I carry a lot
John died on his 30th Birthday, 31st May 2009. We met in 2001 and moved in together in 2002. We met in Edinburgh while I was at University and moved to Carlisle then Belfast (where John’s family lived). We had recently got married (in August 2007) and we moved from Belfast to the Orkney Islands in
I am glad we took so many photographs of Laura, for the numerous memories and reminders they bring back of her personality. Fearless Laura, aged seven, standing with me viewing our house building work from the top scaffold; Laura with her loving pet rabbit, who allowed her to pick him up at any time, but growled
On Monday September 14th 2009, the last thing I reminded Zoe to do was to text me when she had dropped the dog off at the groomers. Later, my wife Julie’s colleague phoned telling me to go home as Zoe’s sister Meghan had called saying she couldn’t wake Zoe up. The journey seemed to take forever.