'If There's a Beautiful Sky, I Say Charlie Would Have Loved That'

Summary

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Almost a year ago, teenager Charlie Thompson and her friend, Olivia, were killed by a train at a level crossing. Unable to contain his grief, her father Reg began writing letters to his daughter, which are now being published in a book in the hope that it will help others trying to cope with loss

On 2 December last year 'the Friday before the Saturday,' as Hilary Thompson says, anything to avoid calling it the day before her daughter died a sliver of family life burned itself on to her memory. 'I had one of those snapshot moments that you know you will remember all your life. It was Charlie [Charlotte, 13] and Robbie [16] laughing together. Charlie was lying on the floor because she was laughing so much. It was the most joyful moment and I stood there, watching my two children laughing uncontrollably together.' On the Saturday morning, Reg Thompson looked in on Charlie, still asleep in bed, before he left to deliver supplies for his brother's wholesale food business. Probably she had her thumb in her mouth. 'I'll suck my thumb if I want to,' she would declare defiantly, if anyone tried to stop her.

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Extract

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'If There's a Beautiful Sky, I Say Charlie Would Have Loved That'

As he kissed her forehead, she woke momentarily. 'I love you, Daddy,' she murmured. He looked in on Robbie and on Harry, now 12, before leaving. He remembers it was a fine day, sunshine playing through clouds over the Essex countryside. A few hours later, Hilary dropped Charlie at her friend Olivia Bazlinton's house. The two girls were catching the train from nearby Elsenham station to go Christmas shopping in Cambridge, five stops away. Charlie had borrowed her mother's jeans and teamed them with a sweater and a second-hand pair of arm...

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