On New Years Day we went out for a meal in Llandudno, North Wales with our pregnant niece, the lovely Holly, her partner Mike and family. The meal started out a little tense since Mike’s brother is in 45 Commando, Royal Marines in Afghanistan and his Mum had just rang Mike to say that the TV had reported that there had been a further combat fatality that day but they were not releasing any names.Mike handled the news very well. 45 Commando had suffered a number of casualties that tour and he obviously had gone through this awful waiting period before.
Mike had to leave the table during the meal to take a mobile telephone call. However, he came back to the table to tell us that bizarrely a very close friend of his had just won £50,000 on a lottery scratch card! His friend had texted a photo of the winning card. So good news!
A little while later Mike had another text to ring his Mum and he left the table suddenly. A short time later he came back with a big smile; his brother had rang his Mum from Afghanistan, and was safe and sound. Big cheers from everyone at the table.
We were a happy family who enjoyed their meal but I think we were all aware of those families who did not have good news this Christmas or beforehand. Our thoughts are with them all.
Our thanks to all British forces personnel who are putting themselves in harms way. Hero’s everyone of them, Per Mare Per Terram (or Air).
