DANGEROUS REAL LIFE
Nikki Barnes, 28, from Sowerby Bridge, taught her son to stay where she could see him. One day he didn’t...
Glancing at the kids playing outside, it was a sunny day. On 3 September last year, it was the last day of the summer holidays. And my son Marli, five, was making the most of it while I cooked dinner.
‘Stay on the street where I can see you,’ I’d told him earlier.
That day we were at my Grandad John’s house with my parents Mandy, 45, and Steven, 49, and my two girls Milli-Mae, eight, and Rayne, one.
‘Tea’s almost done,’ I called out to Marli, checking the chicken Kievs.
‘Not yet Mummy, I’m playing with my friends,’ he begged, pedalling on his Sonic the Hedgehog bike. ‘Can I have five minutes?’
‘Yeah, go on then,’ I smiled at him. ‘Just stay where I can see you.’
In such a small, tight-knit town, I had no worries about Marli playing out.
And Marli never strayed further than the street.
Before plating up, I checked on Rayne in her bouncy chair and called Milli-Mae down.
Returning to the kitchen I saw two men walking up the garden path out the window.
And there was no sign of Marli.
Has Marli got in mischief? I thought.
‘What’s he done now?’ I said opening the door.
‘Your son’s passed out in someone’s garden,’ they replied, solemnly.
Around me everything froze, I went into shock.
I didn’t know what to do and just ran.
‘Mum!’ I screamed.
Seeing her appear at the doorway, I didn’t know what to say and carried on running.
She stayed with Grandad and the girls, but Dad followed me down the street.
In a daze I followed a growing crowd of people to where Marli was.
While just a few minutes away, Marli had gone down a side street to a steep hill which wasn’t visible from the house.
And definitely not in my line of sight.
Seeing him passed out at the bottom of the hill, with a pillow under his head and an elderly neighbour giving him CPR, I felt frozen in time and physically couldn’t speak.
I always told Marli to stay close
In five minutes of letting him play out longer, he’d been in a terrible accident.
I had no idea what had happened to him.
‘Are you Marli’s mum?’ people asked. ‘How old is he?’
But I couldn’t answer and with so many people crowding round, I couldn’t even get near my son.
Someone had already called 999 and paramedics arrived a few minutes after I did.
And watching paramedics put an oxygen mask on Marli, I knew something was wrong.
Suddenly Dad was by my side giving me a big cuddle.
‘I’m going to go and get your Mum,’ he told me.
Fi
