FACING FREEDOM
Prepare for murder on the dancefloor this weekend when Katya Jones’ husband Neil comes face to face with “comedian” Sean(n) Walsh.
(Recap for those for whom Sean(n) has already slipped into reality show oblivion: He’s FISTICUFFS? the one who snogged Sean(n) and Katya on Strictly and Neil then went on to “joke” at a show that her husband was gay.)
Neil is apparently fuming that Sean(n) is back for the show finale and is threatening to confront him backstage.
Crikey... hang on to your sequins boys. IN the next few days Grace Millane will come home to her family. Grace had her whole life ahead
of course, where the perpetual dilemma for every parent lies – and what’s so distressing to every parent who reads this story.
For from the moment your baby first yanks themself up onto their tiny feet a parent becomes locked in an internal (and increasingly external) battle – how much independence do you allow them, how much damage will you do mollycoddling them?
And how much will they just do whatever they want anyway?
My three children are still aged just 14, 12 and nine so ideas for travelling the world, dating men they’ve met online or staying out all night are still, hopefully, years away.
But every day there are new boundaries they want to push. More dangers they inevitably face being out alone. More risks they take because they enjoy the thrills they bring and the greater their thirst for new experiences away from the comfortable confines of home. Boundaries were only ever invented for kids to break. By the time Grace left for her around the world trip she was a fully grown adult more than capable of surviving independently and flying the nest. But to her parents she was – and always will be – their baby. They could have tried to prevent her making that journey. But to hold her back would have been like keeping a bird in a cage.
They were just terribly, horribly, awfully unlucky. New Zealand has one of the lowest murder rates in the world. It welcomes lone travellers with open arms.
The chances of this happening to their daughter on that day, with that man, in that city, were minuscule. So I hope this family never blames themselves for letting Grace go. It was their love and support which made Grace the woman she was.
The only thing which took her away was the sheer evil of a stranger.
‘‘
The chances of this happening to Grace, in that city, were minuscule...
I found Emily Atack’s words in her last hours in the jungle quite moving.
She told how, single at
28, she felt “like a strong independent woman” for the first time in her life and was finally liberated from the need to look perfect all times. at I reckon Emily’s sense of freedom may actually have little to do with three weeks immersed in mealworms and snakes.
But everything to do with three weeks away from the mealworms and snakes of social media where Emily has 621,000 Instagram followers entertained by her regular posed, preening and seemingly filtered selfies. Emily now faces a dilemma
– does she cling on to her new-found self?
Or go back to the selfies?