I clearly remember meeting William for the first time – shortly after Sue and David brought him home from hospital – and taking bunches of sweet William flowers to welcome him to the family. Our son Matthew had just had his first birthday and Ellena was three. Shortly after, we welcomed Rebecca too and the four little cousins happily played together in our gardens, the trampoline, pool and did arts and crafts together. I remember one summer they came to us to learn about camouflage – how animals and birds use it and to make camouflage t shirts. We also made theatre trips together and trips to see animals. Animal trips continued to be William’s favourite and we last did a family trip to meet alpacas to celebrate William’s 21st birthday. We were able to put a baby alpaca on his lap so he could feel how soft it was.

As William’s illness progressed, he was less and less able to be mobile and to verbally communicate with us. He found other ways however, to let us know his thoughts. I had the privilege of looking after William and Rebecca (and Lottie of course) a few times to allow David and Sue a much needed respite long weekend. The last time was October 2019 when they made a lightening trip to India. Rebecca went to a Halloween party and Ellena and myself were putting William to bed that evening. Despite having used the lift before, I did something wrong, and when William reached upstairs, the door would not open. We tried everything we could think of, including calling the lift engineers, but had no response. We had no option but to call the fire brigade out who were fantastic. As were changing William and putting him to bed, the lift engineer arrived. Once William was safely in bed and all our unscheduled visitors had gone, Ellena and I sat on the sofa in the living room and tucked into the trick or treat chocolates that thankfully no one had called round for. This is how Rebecca found us when she returned from her party. We did not tell her about our visitors then but waited until David and Sue returned.  We did however go to check on William and found him awake. He gave Rebecca such a hug and would not let go of her. His eyes clearly said “Thank goodness you are back – you’ve left me with a right amateur here.”

There was the memorable Christmas that William discovered the comedian Tim Vine whose very visual humour appealed to him and really tickled him. He laughed so loud and so long, completely uninhibited, that the rest of us were not only laughing along to the jokes, but also to William’s delighted response. He – and the rest of us - were doubled up with laughter, tears of joy streaming down our faces.

Thank you for all the memories – I will treasure them.
Love Aunty Deborah. xxx