Sunday

21. Preparation Day

Today was preparation day for the start of COPADM 1, in other words the start of the intrusive chemotherapy.
He had to endure scans and an echo of his heart to ensure he was well enough to start this gruelling treatment., tests revealed that his platelet count was low and this sadly gave him a bad headache.

I was staying in a house close by provided by a charity called CLIC (Cancer and leukaemia in children), without their help I don’t think I would have been able to have coped.
There was another couple staying there who were from Greece, their son George had been receiving treatment for quite a while, and although we were all going through the same it was really hard as the Mum spoke very little English.
She found it difficult to visit the hospital without getting too upset and so spent most of her days at the house cleaning, we all deal with these tragedies differently.

My daughter had also come to Bristol to stay in the house for the Christmas period, this was certainly going to be one that none of us would ever forget.
For me it was one of the first time I recall my new partner having a problem with alcohol, he got very drunk with the Greeks, however as a lot had happened during the 10 months that we had been together I brushed it aside assuming that it was his way of dealing with things….how very wrong I was, and how much I would have to pay in the future you have yet to discover.

Saturday

20. A Little Revenge

Sunday

With the letter compiled, full of the emotions that I was feeling towards this man and his family, off I set determined to seek some sort of ‘revenge’ albeit only a fraction of what I really wanted to do.
The previous night I had stayed up all evening planning how I was going to ensure that this piece of filth would not get away without me having my say.
I had arranged to pick up my sister as she wanted to make sure that I never did anymore than I had said I would and get myself into trouble.

So together we took James back to the house and handed him over to spend Christmas with this family, instead of with us and his brother who was possibly going to have his last Christmas ever.
After dropping him off we took a copy of the letter and delivered it to his parents house, after all they were as much involved, they were part of 'The Team'.
We then went to his place of work and waited….. Armed with the card, letter and a leather belt, I marched in through the store to confront him.
He saw me coming and tried to escape to the store room, but as previously said, nothing on this earth was going to stop me…I chased after him and cornered him so that he had no other choice than to face me.
I forced the letter, card and belt into his hand and said these words which I remember as though it were yesterday…

“You **********. The scum of the earth, how dare you send MY son a card and have the nerve to write from 'Dad' inside, after all the lies that you have said about him to the courts to ‘win’ custody of my baby. You kept hospital appointment letters for Tony which may well have been the difference between life and death. Have the card back Tony doesn’t want it and take this letter, read and digest how you and your parents have torn my family apart, and then do us all a favour and take the belt and hang yourself from the nearest rafter!!”.

The whole of the Electrical Store when deadly quiet and not one person attempted to stop me from having my say….
They say revenge is sweet….No way, it didn’t stop the fact that Tony was possibly dying and we were to spend Christmas in a hospital 120 miles away from James.
Where was I going to get the strength to help these children?…I was so lonely, nobody could possibly understand. How could I give all 3 children the 100% of me that was needed, there wasn’t enough of me to share around.
But from somewhere the strength came and I pulled myself together and drove back to Bristol the following day to start all over again