Today I cuddled a four year old

I was visiting the vision support service, who work with blind and partially sighted children in mainstream school- to see what happens to the kids we refer from the hospital. The little boy, G, could see only light, but he was doing amazingly well in mainstream nursery school- with the support of a specialist teacher of the visually impaired.

As I watched him "read" Braille pictures of fruit and then find the matching real fruit from the bowl, I thought about another little boy, my little boy, who if he were here, may well have had vision problems. I remembered frantically trying to remember what I knew about retinopathy of prematurity whilst he was in his incubator fighting for life.....I wondered how I'd have reacted walking into this classroom of chaos, with 60 4 year olds playing games and making pizza.....would I have sent him here?  I hope I would have, because G was doing amazingly! He fitted in just fine and coped brilliantly, just another four year old boy who wanted his turn making pizza now! As we made to leave, G said he "wants to cuddle Sarah" so, we did. And I got covered in pizza crumbs.  And I loved it. And I missed my boy. And I wondered if Bertie had whispered in G's ear to cuddle his mummy. And I didn't cry.

And I am now.....but that's ok.