My son is long through adolescence but what if.....? How many mothers have wondered. Jackie Slough had no idea suicidal thoughts were going round the head of her seemingly well adjusted lovely teenager. It was only in retrospect that she could think what could have been done and said differently. She, her husband Alan and Tom, were all baptised members of their local Baptist church. With Tom’s older brother James, they were all very involved with church life, very busy with their dogs and their work, a happy family they thought till Tom’s death. Their faith is what has held them together – just; and knowing Tom’s great faith has given them the assurance that he is now at peace with his saviour, Jesus Christ. Jackie wrote a journal through the first difficult months, not intending it for publication, but was subsequently persuaded that it could help other mother’s struggling in like circumstances, so she continued adding to it and this is the story of those first five years. It is a no holds barred account of her feelings and actions though this traumatic time, grippingly readable, and interspersed with poems written by Jackie which express so poignantly what she was going through at the time of writing. At the end of the book is more of these, and some of Tom’s own writings too. Heartrending stuff, but well worth reading.

My son is long through adolescence but what if.....? How many mothers have wondered. Jackie Slough had no idea suicidal thoughts were going round the head of her seemingly well adjusted lovely teenager. It was only in retrospect that she could think what could have been done and said differently. She, her husband Alan and Tom, were all baptised members of their local Baptist church. With Tom’s older brother James, they were all very involved with church life, very busy with their dogs and their work, a happy family they thought till Tom’s death. Their faith is what has held them together – just; and knowing Tom’s great faith has given them the assurance that he is now at peace with his saviour, Jesus Christ. Jackie wrote a journal through the first difficult months, not intending it for publication, but was subsequently persuaded that it could help other mother’s struggling in like circumstances, so she continued adding to it and this is the story of those first five years. It is a no holds barred account of her feelings and actions though this traumatic time, grippingly readable, and interspersed with poems written by Jackie which express so poignantly what she was going through at the time of writing. At the end of the book is more of these, and some of Tom’s own writings too. Heartrending stuff, but well worth reading.

My son is long through adolescence but what if.....? How many mothers have wondered. Jackie Slough had no idea suicidal thoughts were going round the head of her seemingly well adjusted lovely teenager. It was only in retrospect that she could think what could have been done and said differently. She, her husband Alan and Tom, were all baptised members of their local Baptist church. With Tom’s older brother James, they were all very involved with church life, very busy with their dogs and their work, a happy family they thought till Tom’s death. Their faith is what has held them together – just; and knowing Tom’s great faith has given them the assurance that he is now at peace with his saviour, Jesus Christ. Jackie wrote a journal through the first difficult months, not intending it for publication, but was subsequently persuaded that it could help other mother’s struggling in like circumstances, so she continued adding to it and this is the story of those first five years. It is a no holds barred account of her feelings and actions though this traumatic time, grippingly readable, and interspersed with poems written by Jackie which express so poignantly what she was going through at the time of writing. At the end of the book is more of these, and some of Tom’s own writings too. Heartrending stuff, but well worth reading.

My son is long through adolescence but what if.....? How many mothers have wondered. Jackie Slough had no idea suicidal thoughts were going round the head of her seemingly well adjusted lovely teenager. It was only in retrospect that she could think what could have been done and said differently. She, her husband Alan and Tom, were all baptised members of their local Baptist church. With Tom’s older brother James, they were all very involved with church life, very busy with their dogs and their work, a happy family they thought till Tom’s death. Their faith is what has held them together – just; and knowing Tom’s great faith has given them the assurance that he is now at peace with his saviour, Jesus Christ. Jackie wrote a journal through the first difficult months, not intending it for publication, but was subsequently persuaded that it could help other mother’s struggling in like circumstances, so she continued adding to it and this is the story of those first five years. It is a no holds barred account of her feelings and actions though this traumatic time, grippingly readable, and interspersed with poems written by Jackie which express so poignantly what she was going through at the time of writing. At the end of the book is more of these, and some of Tom’s own writings too. Heartrending stuff, but well worth reading.