Inspiring father I met this week ...
LaST Sunday I spent a couple of hours in the company of two delightful children in a green room at the BBC.
They were waiting for their dad to finish his TV interview on the andrew Marr Show. I chatted to them about Doctor Who and the Daleks.
They must have been up since dawn, but seemed perfectly happy, with no tantrums, as they spent the morning in a boring BBC backroom.
In a cute floral dress, Lejla kicked off her shoes and was still wearing her sparkly make-up from a party the night before. her brother Cuillin was watching Doctor Who on iPlayer.
after dad Brendan came back from his interview, the three of them played like any other family. and yet they are not any other family.
Brendan is the widower of the late Labour MP Jo Cox, and Lejla and Cuillin are their children.
In a crime that shocked Britain to its core last June, Mummy was shot and stabbed to death in the street by a far-Right extremist.
Yet a closer, better adjusted, more loving family you could not hope to meet — staggering given the trauma they suffered.
even during the brief time I met them, Mummy never seemed far away. after being asked repeated questions by his children about the evil genius of the Daleks, Brendan finally confessed it wasn’t his speciality. ‘Mummy is the Doctor Who expert,’ he said. Yes, Mummy, who they so suddenly lost on June 16, 2016, when Cuillin was just five and Lejla three years old. I tell this story because just 36 hours after I met them, Manchester bomber Salman abedi murdered 22 innocents at a pop concert.
One of the most searing images was of Millie Kiss, 12, being cradled by a policewoman as she waited for news of her mum. Tragically, Michelle Kiss, who had two other children, had been killed. Just hours earlier she had posted a happy picture of Millie on facebook with the caption: ‘excited girlies ready to watch ariana.’
how can families like Millie’s ever rebuild themselves after such a harrowing loss? Their suffering must be unimaginable, but what I saw at the BBC on Sunday should provide a glimmer of light in their darkness.
I would not pretend to know Brendan Cox. I just saw an adoring Dad with two young children wrapped in love. I’m told Brendan has gently explained to his children what happened to Jo.
Cuillin and Lejla know Mummy lives on through them every waking hour of every day. More than speeches and candles and flowers and church services, the indomitable Cox family, I believe, offer true hope to all grieving families today.