LIFE AND... PASSING ON

                                                            

                                                              LIFE AND...  PASSING ON

Tuesday 10th November 2020 was not a good day.  It was a memorable day, but not for the right reasons. It was the day of the inquest into the death of my son.  The 3rd August 2019 was the date he tragically died in mysterious circumstances.  It was a Saturday, the sun was shining, it should have been a good day, not his last day.  The Assistant Coroner at Woking Coroners Court declared  an 'Open conclusion'.  Open means that a death cannot be rubber stamped as definitively as an 'Accident', a 'Suicide'... or afforded a banner appertaining to 'Foul play'.

'Open' may be a conclusion for the Assistant Coroner, but open wasn't the word I'd use to describe the proceedings.  A 'Foregone Conclusion', a 'Whitewash'? it was certainly a convenient shroud behind which  Surrey Police could conceal their lack-of-investigation.  Had they been more diligent in their enquires a more expansive picture would have emerged and the truth behind my sons death more likely to be revealed.  He drowned in a swimming pool at a private house during the afternoon of that fateful day.  He was helping out his estranged wife as a favour...what a price he paid. 

Sixteen months of searching, researching, meeting with the police, encouraged by Court officials to obtain  background information, reviewing the police report, seeking witness statements, and for what?   On the day it mattered, the day you look to have your questions answered and your hopes raised that justice still prevails, merely two hours of shallow probing and tip-toeing around the perimeters of the case later, a bitter pill is to be swallowed when judgement is reached.  Let down by a system with such a narrow remit the devastation is immense and quite overwhelming.  One feels numb.  Oh that the Assistant Coroner had asked the police to re-investigate the case.  The only recourse one has is to take the matter to the High Court, a step slightly outside the purse of the ordinary man...

Over this weekend letters will be formulated and sent to the Chief Constable of Surrey Police, The Chief Coroner at Woking Coroners Court and possibly my local MP, Mr Michael Gove.

It is so easy to be bitter, resentful and brood for the rest of ones life, but where does that get you or those around you?  We all travel the road of life but once.  Having drawn a line under this 'BlackTuesday' and with the words 'Open Conclusion' now part of one's 'Baggage for life', it is time to move on, be it the road I have trodden for many years, or maybe a new road with a brighter horizon?   Who knows... 

What I do know is that I miss my son terribly.  I've sent text messages to his phone, a phone from which I will never receive a reply, but the fact that they do not bounce back is strangely comforting, so maybe he is reading them somewhere up there, for he will be 'Up there', wearing a Chelsea FC shirt and holding a glass of red wine accompanied by his grandparents.  I'll raise a glass tonight...