There's a Bright Golden Haze...

20 years ago, my mam was very sick in hospital with something that looked like hepatitis - she had fallen ill on holiday, and carried on stoically, dousing herself liberally with alcohol in an endeavour to kill the "bug" she had caught.   It didn't work. 

When she came home, and didn't improve for a week, and after repeated calls to the doctor she was admitted, very yellow in colour and treated well for over a week, (for a virus that looked like hep) and finally recovered.  

Just after she had been admitted, the tragic Dunblane incident unfolded.  I remember trying to hide newspapers from her, because seeing that in the state she was in would have been too much.  All those little faces staring out hopefully from the national press; it was all too much. 

Boy was exactly the same age.  Primary One.  

I held both of them extra tight that night.  

And every day since - 

All the promise that was lost.  

Live, laugh and love - like each day was your last. 



And for that reason, I stopped off on the way to work, and danced on the beach for a little while...Like no one was watching.  (Apologies to the man who was :-) )