A heartfelt deeply personal post from a BBC journalist.
By John Darvall
/ johndarvallblog.com
On Saturday 31st October, at 1.30am, my 22-year-old eldest
daughter Polly was killed when she lost control of the car she was
driving and hit a tree. She was alone in her VW Beetle, no one else was
hurt and, I am told, it was instant.
I can tell you that having lost my father as a child, other close
family members along the timeline of life and having said many times ‘on
air’ that losing a child must be the worst thing of all, it is. It
really is. It’s not a grief ‘competition’ it just is. Losing a child is
the worst thing of all.
Polly’s mother Sarah and her dad Simon, who brought Polly up from the
age of 3 and did such a brilliant job, are broken by this, as are all
our families. My eldest son, Polly’s brother Oliver, is broken too but
one of the few comforts I am taking at the moment is what a fine, brave,
courageous man he has become. Again his mother Sarah and dad Simon
deserve all the credit.
