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We saw our next door neighbours just before we were leaving today and thankfully, after the high drama of the day before yesterday, everyone is fine. The mask of terror on the face of the mum had gone and the relief was, of course, palpable. She looked like a different woman. It was an amazing thing to see and it was a huge relief to us also to have the boy's safety confirmed. We laughed together. Every parent is united by the fear of something like this - every disaster cuts us all, every disaster averted a huge relief. Non-parents or anyone who cares about others are also able to feel these emotions too, but the fear of something terrible happening never quite goes away and nags away at you even when everything is fine. As my mum says "even when the sky is blue and clear there's always a cloud on the horizon).
Anyway, phew. I have to say I was not at all sure this story would have a happy ending. Phoebe had said that that boy would have a great story for school when they asked what everyone had done in the school holidays. The mum said that the older brother would have a good story but the boy it had happened to couldn't remember anything about it. He was unsurprisingly still a little shell shocked.
You're allowed to stay at Center Parcs until midnight on the day of you departure, but changeover days are always super busy and we felt like we'd done enough and we had to get to Cheddar for my dad's 88th birthday party.
It was a lovely day, with the two great grandchildren in attendance and four of the six grandchildren (including my two who are closer to the great grandchildren age than the other grandkids) and a surprise appearance from Spider-Man. I'd really rather wait til his funeral to give my dad the praise that he deserves. I don't want him knowing my true feelings while he is alive. But I am very proud to be his son and his example has made me reluctantly live a better life than I would have been inclined to without him. When I tweet about him there are always a few ex pupils who chime in to say what a great headmaster he was and he was a stricter dad when I was growing up, but still gave me the leeway to be a comedian at school and then in real life. See the Headmaster's Son for full details.
I probably won't say anything nice about him at his funeral either (presuming I outlive him, which is far from certain) and will just talk about him leaving the passports on top of the car on our way home from a holiday in France and falling in the pond and eating lip balm at my wedding because he thought it was cheese. And doubtless my kids will only remember me getting the car stuck in mud and losing a ball and whatever other humiliations are to come.
But as I hope the radio series Relativity showed (even though it was only loosely based on my family - apart from all the things that Ken did, which 90% of happened to my dad) I am so lucky to be in a family that still loves each other and where all the generations of kids do their best to make it back for stuff like this. I am sure many 88 year old men have birthdays that pass by almost unnoticed and kids and grandkids that resent them too much to make the effort to see them. And that's TK Herring's real greatest achievement and I think he knows it whether I say it now or after he's snuffed it.
