She caught the dresser as she stumbled and smashed the photo to the floor. Doreen landed in a heap on the sofa and burst into tears.
‘Not again! It can’t be happening again.’
Celia sat next to her mother and put her arms round her.
‘Lucy will be ok, she has us. We’ll help her raise Thomas. We know what it’s like, raising a child alone.’
‘And being a child without a father. Senseless violence. 80 years, 80 bloody years and we’ve learnt nothing.’
‘I know it’s horrible.’
‘I was only two, I have no memory of my dad thanks to Hitler just a damn photo. The Falklands took Robert and then you lost Richard.’
‘At least Lucy remembers her dad.’
‘Fifteen is too young to lose your dad.’
‘So is six. Thomas is the same age I was.’
‘When you marry a soldier or a fireman you know there’s a risk. This was a stupid idiot with a knife. Matt died because he was there, he didn’t do anything, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He went out for groceries for heaven’s sake! Is that not safe now?’
‘Kids losing their fathers because someone is angry. We all get angry, but we don’t all kill people.’
‘My father thought he was fighting for freedom. To keep us all safe. Robert was protecting people, Richard was saving people, Matt just wanted to fed his son. None of them needed to die so bloody young but Matt didn’t sign up to put himself in danger, he was a youth worker trying to help kids like the one who put a knife in him. This has to stop!’
‘This is another kind of war. One no-one signed up for.’