Pair driven by a sliver of hope...

Opinion

On 17th birthday

BY POLLY HUDSON

IT has been called every parent’s worst nightmare so many times that the words have almost ceased to have meaning... and yet this situation is even more terrible than that.

The agony of knowing your child is somewhere, lost in the world, without you to protect her is unimaginably unbearable. And, on top of that, Kate and Gerry McCann have had to cope with judgment, scrutiny, suspicion, cruelty and attacks from law enforcement agencies and general public alike.

All while trying to keep life going for their two other children.

Somehow, they continue to weather a storm that would have dragged most of us under and, remarkably, with their marriage – and religious faith – still intact.

Kate has told how she still opens and closes the curtains in Madeleine’s untouched bedroom every day. The family release regular public messages too, that they hope their daughter will see. Just last month, on her 17th birthday, they wrote: “We love you and we’re waiting for you and we’re never going to give up.”

This major breakthrough in the case is not the one we were all hoping for – and it, and logic, suggests that this story probably isn’t going to have the happy ending everyone desperately wants.

But if it leads to Kate and Gerry discovering the truth, they will at least finally be able to process the loss.

Without closure, they will always have hope. And, as any parent knows, if there was even the tiniest sliver of hope, it would be impossible to give up, ever.