Words of comfort

I SO admire the parents of 14-year- old Nell Jones, who died in the Manchester Arena bombing. They are right: we cannot wrap our children in cotton wool, not if we want them to thrive and make the best of themselves. My daughter died in 1997, just before her 19th birthday, albeit under very different circumstances, but the thankfulness I felt for the time she was my daughter, and a sister to her three older brothers, has sustained me through the years.

When things get tough, I picture her asking me at the end of my life how I’d coped. I’d tell her it had been hard at times, but I hope she would applaud my efforts to live a good life in her memory. SUZETTE QUINN, Blackburn, Lancs.