That day, the day that every mother is scared of, the day her son gets taken.

On that Wednesday, her son Jack had finally received the assignment he had been waiting for all his life, to go to the front and fight for his country in Afghanistan. In one week he would be taken. He knew the instant that he got back from the training camp. He knew he had hurt her – things would never be the same.

The days wasted away like nothing, time stopped. It felt like an infinity. A forever.

That night, the night before, she went upstairs with a cup of tea and kissed her son on the forehead. A kiss, but with absolute silence. She got into bed but there was no attempt to sleep because of the fear. It’s like the fear when you were a child, scared of the bogey man but ten times worse. The sweat flowed from her head like a waterfall so she went into the bathroom to look into the mirror. She looked ill so she took some pain killers. Not one thing was happening, they had no effect apart from the hallucinations.

The voices, the images and surrounding smells, a montage of all the good moments she had with her son. All the moments when he needed her but she could not help. Hell. Horror.

It hit her, she remembers when her little boy was on the beach and got sunburn and she was there to put sun cream on and after sun on to ease his pain. She was always the one to kiss it better and protect her son from the outside world but now she is in uncharted waters.

She woke up suddenly with a gasp of air as the situation was drowning her. That night she had no sleep. Zombie.

The next morning, today, the day her world would be turned upside down.

She walked down the stairs; it was around six am. There was a cup of tea waiting for her and a figure she didn’t know sitting in her son’s armchair, someone dressed in an army uniform. She realises it’s her son. She knows that there is only one hour until armageddon. He will be taken. They have sat there in silence as no-one can think of the words to say, as there are not many words to describe the way that a mother is feeling, she is trying to say something and stt-tuters and staaamers, He can see that she loves him dearly.

Her anxiety is going crazy, she can’t stop biting her nails and the skin around them. She has bags around her eyes as she is tired, as her son is looking at her as he can see that without him she can not go on living.

A knock at the door it’s them, Jack gets up as she gets up, making an awkward situation. They’re both at the door, it was as if they were saying I love you and be safe. As she pins a Poppy on his uniform, she gives him a hug, but now his shoulder is damp.

He walks to the car and a word was said “love you” as she was the only one who has been there his whole life. A tear rolls down his face with a smile to go with it.

She will never let go,but she must let him go.