Some things can't be thrown away

On Tooli's 12th birthday, her brother was in Switzerland, and the majority of her friends on holiday again. We had her birthday early and we ordered her a special birthday cake.

The cake was sugar iced and was decorated with Tooli, her cat Garp, And the Rabbits, Blue and Thumper.

The week before her actual birthday wee Garp who was actually 6 years older than Tooli died. It was doubly tragic, because not only did she wait till the three of us were sitting with her to breathe her last, but her sister Rue-cat had died the previous summer when Boy was in the same bloody place in Switzerland with the school.

I collected the cake the following week and they opened it to let me see it! Aw. Beautiful wee Toolibelle, beautiful Bean and Beau and oh my god, there's wee dead Garp!

The lady in the shop was kind enough to offer to remove Garp, but i said no, it was a nice memorial! Probably the first birthday cake that made everyone cry who looked at it!

We weren't of course allowed to eat the figures - the rabbits (now also gone) and Garp are hidden away in a memory box, but because Tooli is such a strange shape she has sat out and got dusty! Can't actually believe I've been dusting round that for four years.

As a footnote: boy can't go to Switzerland now for fear of someone dying.... He and his dad went last summer and you could see the relief on his face as he got off the bus and realised all heads were accounted for!