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'Our Family Holiday' We had arranged a short break, at short notice, and booked a week in the sunny seaside town of 'Great Yarmouth', Norfolk... Our holiday commenced on July 16th 2001... The day before, I went out to buy a 'padded bag', something safe and secure that would allow us to take 'Our Precious Angel' with us too... How could we leave Jack at home?... He is our baby and this was his holiday too... The morning of the holiday came and Andrew and I packed the car up, settled the children in the car then went to our lounge and took our precious angel from 'his place' and carefully placed him in a little box all wrapped up tight into the little bag I bought especially for him! There were a few tears at this time, oh how we didn't want to be taking our baby's 'ashes' on holiday with us, packing him into a 'bag'... We should of been carrying Our baby Jack in his 'car seat', smiling and laughing about our holiday to come, but all we had was sadness in our hearts, tears in our eyes and that 'lump' in your throat!! I held Jack close all the journey, but how I wished that I could of been feeling his warm little body next to mine... I had my memories though, and remembered...
This photo was taken when we arrived at our destination... Jack, safely tucked up in his little bag with mummy...
As soon as we arrived, we put up in the lounge area the 2 photographs that we took with us of our Jack... In the morning, we took Jack's photographs to the 'breakfast' room, where last year, whilst pregnant with Jack, we had met some wonderful members of the staff there who grew to know us during our holiday, and we told them of the problems our sweet Jack had and what we were going to be facing with Jack's birth and that we would keep in touch with them... This is the first time that they were to see the photographs though of Jack... They said just how beautiful he was and offered kind words of comfort... The holiday started well, although the 'empty' space in our hearts, knowing that there should be 3 of our children running around this year instead of 2 was 'always there'... Jack was with us, in our arms, 24 hours a day... We did everything together as a family...
On mostly every day of our holiday, we visited the local pier where the children had sooooo much fun on the 'attractions' and 'big rides'... Sophie just loved the 'roller coaster' and Ben adored the little 'cars' that went around on a track, thinking he was actually 'steering them himself'... bless! The first ride that we took Jack on was the 'Snails'... A beautiful little ride which ventured through a darkly lit tunnel, full of 'nursery rhyme characters & childrens favourites... Jack had a ride with each of us, and I am sure he loved it in there! Jack then came on the 'Carousel Horses', and also another 'Horse' ride which Sophie enjoyed holding him on... When Ben was about to have a go on the 'Vintage Car' ride, he sat in the seat, looked up and Andrew & I and said... "I want Jack to come with me too"... Oh, what this meant to us... Tears filled our eyes and that lump in our throat was again, getting bigger... We placed Jack in Bens arms, and he sat him next to him in the little passenger seat and looked so proud as he was driving around... The guy who was operating the ride, looked at us in a 'funny way', (obviously wondering why our son had wanted to take a bright pink bag with him on a ride)! He then approached us with the comment... "Um, is that his 'imaginary friend' or something? Oh, we replied, definately not imaginary! Andrew explained about Jack, and instead of the response we thought we may get, a warming smile came on his face as he then told us about the baby he and his wife lost 25 years ago at birth! Oh what a small world we live in!!!!
Please click on the following 'Thumbnails' to take you to larger photos of our holiday with Jack...
The holiday itself went well.. We are taking the children on a plane in a couple of months for an extra special holiday! Ben just adores planes and is soooo excited that he is going to be able to actually go in one! He says he is going to 'look for Jack' in the clouds and see if he has his balloons that we've sent him! We did another special thing for our Jack whilst we were on holiday! We always send a 'balloon' to Heaven on special days, and just 'had' to send Jack one so he could enjoy the fun up above as well as here on earth... Please click on the following links to take you to:~ (story & photographs of this special release)
(Jack's Portrait drawn by wonderful artist ~ 'Philip Harvey')
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