Losing a child is devastating. When that child, at any age, finds life so unbearable that he destroys himself, for the mother who conceived, carried and then bore him the pain is terrible.

We each have to find our own way through such experiences, and these ways will vary. Always first is the help given through the love and understanding of those closest to us, and those near enough to suffer with us…

Thank heaven this first desolation doesn’t last for ever, nor do the various physical ills one can be afflicted by when grieving, and family and friends eventually become real again, and their love and care a comfort…

In the extreme need of early days the hills brought their healing. I went out again on my solitary walks, not able … to reach the tops, but with my eyes on their strength and their changing beauty. And in time … they brought joy – joy that in a mysterious way is the other side of the coin from pain.

Joan Fitch, 1988