The Phone Call to Europe

Life went on, work, children, wonderful holidays, work on the house (my projects), decorating, long days with friends, making love, laughter, future plans and that still nagging doubt despite my misfortune to have stumbled across the suspected "other woman".

2006 went by in a flash - I was busy with and very much enjoying my work, I had been approached a number of times in the past few years to join new enterprises, but I loved my current job and the professionalism & cameraderie of my colleagues, that it wasn't on the agenda to move at all.

We planned a family holiday in August of 2006 - a joint family decision to a European country none of us had visited in our leisure time. Our usual summer getaway - the warmth of the sun, luxury villa, family time, good food and wine, the prospect of lazy afternoon siestas and making love with my husband. Bliss.

The phone call came on the fourth day of our holiday, just as we had started to relax and feel the warmth of the sun.

A fire at our home. We had to return immediately to survey the damage and secure our property.

We took the first flight out the next day, just 15 hours after receiving the news. We didn't know the extent of the damage as we travelled, anxious about what we might find upon our arrival home, yet trying to keep our emotions and feelings in check for the sake of our children.

To this day I will never forget how I felt when I walked through my battered and bludgeoned front door and saw the sky through what had been the roof of the house two storeys up as I stood in our hallway. If only I knew that facing the almost total devastation of my house was actually a fraction of the devastation I was to feel less than a year later...........

I feel I am a fairly strong person emotionally - but the pressure of seeing my children's bedrooms, their toys, their memory boxes, their beds, bedding, everything, even the clothes in their wardrobes gone, never mind 2/3rds of our beautiful home burnt out, and then soaked through with dirty, sludgy water almost destroyed me. The Fire Brigade had managed to save our wedding photos- ironically the ONLY thing that was saved that had been in the loftspace.........