Day 147 Week 20

Wow.

C unpacked his kit bag and there it all was. Desert combats, webbing, armour, boots, helmet, all smelling of a foreign land so far away and yet so connected to our lives.

Sat talking to him this morning and he is so much older than when he went out. I'd noticed, since he came back, that he'd suddenly say 'God this is weird', and he was obviously heavily preoccupied but sitting listening to him describe what they'd been through was salutary.

They helped build a road into the green-zone, so called because it's in the valley of the Helmund river and the terrain is lush and fertile as opposed to the barren arid emptiness of the desert. Well more precisely they protected the Engineers while they built the road. He had a pet dog, which he loved, but unfortunately she had to be destroyed when they moved because life was too uncertain for her. He showed me a map of the region with its alien sounding names interspersed with the all to familiar ones that we hear on the news.

He told me his men were awesome, the best bunch of guys in the world. He told me he loved them and would miss them beyond words when they're replaced. Then a friend rang who had also come home and I heard him chat about the tour and then he said he couldn't go into too graphic descriptions of what had happened because he was with his mother.

He told me he felt angry all the time, and would I forgive him if he was snappy. I told him I was so proud of him, and that even though I had tried to persuade him not to join the army, I couldn't think more highly of him under any circumstances. He showed me the St Christopher medal I'd given him, which he wore all the time on the same chord as his ID tags.

Then I went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea and I found a list he'd written on the floor next to the washing machine of all the people in the platoon, including himself, with all their blood groups next to their names.

Finally H arrived home having been on the scent of a woman, and R staggered downstairs looking unreasonably gorgeous even though she'd obviously been wrecked the night before, and I duly took up my position in the kitchen and produced endless bacon sandwiches. Took C's gorgeous girlfriend home and H, C and R gone out with a friend to our nearest town. C wants to get a plaque to take back out as a memorial to one of his friends and comrades.

God bless them all.

Anyway, on a lighter note, it's down to the pub to watch the Rugby this afternoon. Definitely got divided loyalties over the England v Ireland game.

Speak soon. A soldier's Mum x