Catherine Heffernan, 40, was resting after her night shift when a knock at the door changed her life forever
WORDS: VERONIQUE HAWKSWORTH. PHOTOS: SWNS
Bouncing on the trampoline in our garden, my son Ryan, 12, got higher and higher with every jump.
‘Careful,’ I laughed, as his sisters waited for their turn.
I thought back to Ryan as a toddler, and how he’d been desperate to scramble up to the trampoline but not quite being big enough to have a go.
‘Seems like only yesterday,’ I said to my partner Mike.
It was March 2022, and Ryan was now a healthy, energetic young boy and between him and his sisters, our house was never quiet.
Full of giggles, Ryan would be ambushing us with his Nerf gun one moment, and then reeling off facts about his favourite Pokémon the next.
‘Look what I just caught,’ said Ryan later that day, showing me his latest Pokémon Go catch on his phone.
I had no clue about them, but I loved seeing Ryan so excited.
His other passion was animals, and with three cats, lizards and fish in our house, I joked that it was turning into a zoo!
‘I want to be a marine biologist,’ he’d say, and was always begging for new pets for our aquarium.
FAMILIAR ROUTINE
The next morning, I arrived home after a night shift at a supermarket to the usual chaos of getting the kids ready for school.
‘Can’t find my PE kit,’ grumbled Ryan, still half asleep.
Ironing his school blazer, I slid his arms into the sleeves.
‘Have a good day, love you,’ I said, giving him a hug and kiss.
‘Love you too,’ he said, stepping out the front door to walk the five-minute journey to school with his big sister.
Slumping on to the sofa, exhausted, I relaxed. But, just after 1pm, my phone buzzed with a call from an unknown number.
I let it ring out as I fell back to sleep, only, 10 minutes later, there was hammering on the door.
I opened it to find two police officers and immediately I began to panic.
‘Ryan collapsed at school,’ one explained, before ushering me into the police car. Still in my work uniform, I trembled as I climbed in, my mind a blur.
During the short drive to the school, my mind raced. I begged the officers to tell me what was going on, but they couldn’t give me any details.
Had Ryan overdone it in PE? Tripped down some stairs? Was he OK?
The car pulled up on the school field and I saw it was surrounded by ambulances. Then I saw the air ambulance landing nearby.
