In order to make the trip that lay ahead as comfortable as possible, we decided it would be in everybody’s best interest if we set off in advance on the Friday and stayed at my Wife’s Brother’s in Sheffield. Having first read Robbe’s schedule for his appointments it had become apparent the appointment at King’s College Hospital was actually for the 25th and not the 23rd as I had first thought !!!! Ths wasn’t a major issue we would simply still head off to Sheffield and stay both Friday and Saturday.
As mentioned in my previous entry, our 14 year old son Rhys, had decided he wouldn’t be joining us on the trip and was staying at his Gran’s who lives local to where we live. Great idea I thought as Gran stayed near, he would still be able to see his friends and do the things he usually does, we set out at 10.30am, which considering I had planned for a 10am launch seemed pretty decent… It was as we were about to leave I think the reality hit my wife and I we were going on a trip and leaving our teenage son for the first time in his life, this really felt quite traumatic, I think as we knew we were heading off for all these medical appointments it had further distracted us from the fact, we were leaving him for the first time ever.
It took a few seconds for the wife to well up with tears, and to be honest I felt a major lump in my throat (although I tried to be as manly as possible and made some funny gesture to try and lighten the situation), even Rhys was close to tears although similar to me was trying his best not to let it show. I did ask him one more time before we set off if he wanted to come just to say so… but no he was just going to stay.
However eventually we set off, and Jane cried for the first 15 minutes or so, then consoled herself by constantly texting him throughout the journey…
255 miles later we arrived in Sheffield with only a few water stops on the way, Robbie and Chloe handled the journey remarkably well, with the “are we there yet‘s” only coming every 10 minutes or so throughout the entire journey.
Robbie was in great spirits and seemed really well and contented throughout the trip, no complaints of pain and in general really happy with himself. We arrived at Les and Sonia’s (Brother and Sister in law’s) around 5pm, and were treated to an excellent meal and the kids got the chance to play in the garden with Heather their 7 years old daughter, Robbie took an instant liking to the family pet a Weimararner called Harley, a 1 year old puppy with boundless energy… he certainly gave Robbie a good workout for the evening !!!
Later on that evening Rhys had called his Mum and was obviously a bit upset about being away from his family, and asked if he could get the train down to get us, there was no way I was letting a 14 year old travel all the way from Scotland to Sheffield on his own, so me being as soft as I am decided to tell him I would head back up for him early Saturday morning and fetch him, hence at 4.30am this morning I was back in the car heading back the 250 miles I had just travelled down yesterday, to pick up Rhys and turn around and head back down again… A real pain ? Sure but it was worth it to have the whole family reunited again… Robbie and Chloe were ecstatic to have big brother back on the scene. Maybe you would travel to the end of the world for your own kids… (well at least from Scotland to Sheffield)
So it's off tomorrow to the big smoke (London) to see what lies ahead, so far so good...
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