A day of thankfulness

When I wrote last week's blog post, I was worried and upset. It was so upsetting to watch with the world of the devastation that the earthquake in Nepal had caused. I was even more worried when my son told me about his close friend Sam.

The oh so gorgeous Sam was missing in Nepal. I spoke to his Mum Alison who seemed very positive and together over the phone. That was an act of course...she and her husband Martin were desperately frightened. In classic British understatement mode, Martin smiled wryly as he told me "well, we've had better weekends!"

But on Monday lunchtime, there was good news when Alison phoned. Although they'd not heard from Sam directly, they had received a phone call from the Mum of another trekker who was with Sam. They were alive!

I drove out immediately to see them and to record this interview....do listen, and hear what happened by clicking here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02q7ypp.

It was wonderful to share their relief and absolute joy , and to take a photo which says it all...

My son was over the moon to hear the news that Sam was safe. They are part of a close knit group who met when they were eleven years old, all starting out at their new high school. Always in and out of each others houses, it's been great to see them grow up together.

One of the highlights for me has been our annual village barn dance ..and every year, the gang have met up in our garden on late Saturday afternoon in June

to pitch their tents on our lawn ,and off to Shirley's barn at the other end of the village...all dressed in jeans, checked shirts, boots and hats, to dance like crazy to old tunes and dances from a band, a caller, and then strut their stuff until 2 or 3am at the disco afterwards.

 Sam even travelled back from Brussels one year just for the weekend to be with his friends at the barn dance. Happy times. Now of course, they are all scattered all over the UK and the world. My son Callum went off to Oz for two years, now Tommy is in Columbia to teach English, Tom is in Peru, George is in Hong Kong, Andrew and Gazza are closer by.

They're all having adventures and learning about life, which is as it should be. Although we don't know yet how Sam is ,or when he'll be home, there's one thing he will have learnt for certain and that is just how precious life actually is.