Hi little man – In the name of Thiago – Day 251

 

I took a call from the stonemason, who has been working on Thiago’s headstone yesterday. I felt a strange sense of excitement, which is a bit weird you might think to hear someone say about an inanimate object that simply marks the space of someone, who is no longer with us.

 

But it’s been a long time coming. Angélica and I first went to see the fella who’s done the work – he was personally recommended to us by the lovely chap from Co-op Funeral Care who looked after us on that awful day back in December – back in January and now eight months later, my little man’s headstone is finally in place.

 

 

Here it is. The curvature of the material on the heart-shape is absolutely perfect. As we approached from the cemetery from the main road, Angélica was really impressed by how it stood out, I didn’t have my bins on so couldn’t make it out very easily. But as we neared my little man’s grave, I noticed that the little heart that merges into the main shape, which we’d intended to have a picture of him in, was empty.

 

So instead of being really tearful as I normally am when I visit the cemetery, the over-riding feeling was instead one of annoyance. For fuck’s sake, yet another thing I’m going to have to try to sort before the start of the big walk, if indeed it can be sorted without hideous amounts of expense. My recent experiences point to everything I try to do resulting in either huge emotional outbursts or more bills. I’m not that inclined to either all that greatly.

 

I’m feeling incredibly tired, both emotionally and physically and I’m going to have to call it a night. Tomorrow I’ll be heading over to the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas for a special time of reflection on my little man’s life, so I daresay I’ll be utterly shagged then as well. I might as well try to get my head down for a bit and see if I can at least wake up tomorrow refreshed.

 

Just before I go, I’d like to say a big thank you to my friend Adam, who works for a company that does testing for the metals and minerals industry in the north west. His employers have bumped £600 into the pot, which together with some donations from the Hereford massive means that I only need to raise another £420 to reach my target, which though I say so myself, is absolutely stupendous. Let’s see if we can get there over the next seven days folks and then anything else is a Brucey bonus.