Authors: Casey Watson

Crying for Help (27 page)

And I’d returned home to a surprise Mike been keeping from me for days now, when he mysteriously fired up his laptop and then Kieron’s printer and, after a couple of mouse clicks, out had spewed two tickets. He’d secretly booked us a week in Corfu, leaving in less than forty-eight hours.

And now we were all assembled, and it was a Watson family take-away. The three of us, plus Lauren – she and Kieron were off to Cornwall in the morning – plus Riley and David and little baby Levi, who didn’t much care for curry but had grown extremely fond of poppadoms – he was sitting in his high chair sucking on one right now.

‘Well, I don’t care whose curry is whose,’ Riley said now. ‘I’ve got my lamb pasanda, so I’m all sorted down my end.’

‘Hang on, love,’ David said. ‘Didn’t you order an extra naan?’

They exchanged looks. ‘This the perfect moment?’ Riley mouthed at him, grinning.

He nodded. ‘Oh, I think so.’

We all stopped squabbling over foil trays and looked. ‘Perfect moment for what?’ I said. ‘Go on.’

‘No,
you
go on, Mum.’ Riley was grinning too. ‘You’re supposed to ask, “Why d’you need to order an extra naan?”’

‘You’re not!’ This was Mike, slightly more on the ball than I was. Though in fairness, I had had a lot on my plate.

‘I am,’ she said brightly.

‘Blimey,’ Kieron echoed. ‘I think she is, too!’ It clicked. ‘Eating for two?’ I asked, still not quite believing it.

‘See!’ Kieron said, as my eyes began misting. ‘A pound, please. I
knew
it was my bhuna!’

Epilogue

Four years on, Sophia has made astonishingly good progress. After an extended spell in hospital, and then in a specialist adolescent unit, where she underwent cognitive behavioural therapy, came the good news that her uncle and aunt wanted to welcome her back into the family. As a consequence, after a period during which she made a gradual transition, she went to live with them full time when she was 15. She was then able to resume her education and is now studying for GCSEs, and hoping to go to college and study beauty therapy.

The management of Sophia’s Addison’s disease continues to be challenging, but with the support of her aunt and uncle she is taking responsibility for her health, motivated in part, or so her uncle tells me, by her relationship with her little nephew, who adores her. And though she never re-established a relationship with her grandmother, sadly now deceased, her granddad visits her regularly and never forgets her birthday.

As for me and my family, well, there’s obviously no denying that taking care of a complicated child like Sophia was, and remains, one of the most challenging things we’ve ever done, and I spent many hours, both while she was with us and for some time after, questioning my ability to do such a job, both from a personal point of view and in relation to my loved ones. Was I right to put the family through such stress? Ultimately, however, we’re all agreed it
was
a good thing. We were there for her at a time when she had no one to help her, and we all learned so much, and also grew as people, along the way.

And, perhaps, it was coming through the experience of Sophia that gave both me and mine the tools we would need for our next challenge. Three siblings, needing urgent refuge from a damaging and dangerous home life. Within weeks that Corfu holiday would begin to feel like a distant memory …

For more information about Addison’s disease, go to www. addisons.org.uk

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all of the team at HarperCollins, the lovely Andrew Lownie, and my friend and mentor, Lynne. I’d also like to add a special thought to all those working within the care system.

Copyright

This book is a work of non-fiction based on the author’s experiences. In order to protect privacy, names, identifying characteristics, dialogue and details have been changed or reconstructed.

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First published by HarperElement 2012

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CRYING FOR HELP
. © Casey Watson 2012. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Casey Watson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-00-743658-3

EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2011 ISBN: 978-0-00-743659-0

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