Thursday 1st

The bad news arrived like a brick through the window.  From the heights of joy to the pits of despair in the space of eight hours.  We all felt shocked and stunned at the thought of monitoring, operations, care, worry that was sure to follow.  Yes, yes, yes - this will all be over someday, we will look back these days and joke - but right now we stood in front of the mountain with no rope.  It still did not feel real to me - a dream to woke from - I had to see him to be sure it was not some cruel joke.

Listening to tears on the phone from the grandparents and trying to console my brother from 120 miles away was not going to work.  Suki, I and the kids would bailed out of work and school to head to the midlands for some soul searching.