On your 21st birthday Huw; we will keep you safe xxx

The music from the link at the end of this writing is ‘I’ll keep you safe’. I don’t know if it’s the image of the ‘Nationwide’ advert and the lost scarf being handed down from father to son? Or if it’s the words ‘I’ll keep you safe’ – or the beautiful music itself? But as someone else has said before, to me ‘this song speaks of nothing but love and reassurance’ and this is even more true on Huw’s 21^st birthday – 25^th November 2016.

Huw won’t be able to ‘hold out his hand’, ‘find any secrets’ in his life, or ‘smell the sweetness of spring’ on his 21^st. A perfect young guy who deserved so much better, would be celebrating his 21^st birthday with his family and his Holmfirth friends – and I’m sure with his Uni and other friends too.

In the words of the song Huw; I will keep you safe.

So how can we keep Huw safe? For me it means loving him for ever, talking about him, dreaming about him, imagining the best for him, ‘picturing’ him with his friends, ‘admiring’ him on the football pitch, ‘hearing’ about his life away at uni, ‘seeing’ him with a girl he loved, sometimes crying about him, sometimes laughing about him. It means running or cycling in his memory and remembering that he will be a member of our family forever. It means remembering that he was the answer to his Mum and Dad’s dreams; the perfect boy. Keeping Huw safe means looking out for the Mum he doted on, and helping the sister he adored achieve her goals. It means loving the cousins and family that meant the world to him.

Most of all it means remembering everything. I remember everything like it was the other day. His voice, his expressions, his complexion, his words, his movement. His personality, and his hopes, dreams and ambitions. Most of all the 3 things that define Huw for me are: his humour; his sense of what was right and what was wrong; and his loyalty. I would ask for nothing else.

Huw Nicholas Thatcher. Born 25^th November 1995.

We will love you foreover – just the same as always – more than I have the words to describe. We will keep you safe xxx.

Listen for a minute, and dream about beautiful Huw – and the 21-year old guy he would have now become – here is the link to ‘I’ll Keep You Safe’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auyiYHVPSvM