Curious Incidents of a Flailing Mermaid

You'll Never Walk Alone

Soundtrack to My Life – Track twenty-two

I went to school with two brothers with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2   (SMA). I always felt for their parents. It is tough enough having kids anyway, let alone two very disabled kids who needed pretty much 24 hour care.

The two guys, M and P, were very different. M was bigger, clever and very hard to crack. P was tiny (he had a lot more problems than M), cheeky and a mummy’s boy.

I could talk about both of them for pages and pages. In fact, I went out with both of them (at very different points in my life. But I’ll try not to go on for too long.

Everyone thought M would be really successful and P would stay at home and be looked after. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out like that.
M got a job but was made redundant a few years later and that was it; he stopped trying. He stayed at home all day every day. He went to his PC when he got up and stayed there until bed time: that was life. A few years ago, I helped him get his care sorted. So he is a bit more active. But he still lives with his parents and doesn’t use his impressive brain.

P surprised us all by deciding to go off to uni – we never thought he’d do anything of the sort. But he did, and he absolutely loved it. He made tons of friends, partied hard, drank plenty and studied well. The photos made me smile.

Unfortunately, mid-way through his second year at Uni, P died. He was no stranger to illness and hospitals. But he’d been so well for the longest time and I remember being pissed off that he hadn’t been given the chance to finish his degree.

P’s wasn’t the first funeral of a friend I’d been to. But is sticks out the most. He was a massive Liverpool FC supporter. So when they played the music to carry him out by, I rolled my eyes, chuckled then probably cried. Now this song reminds me of the most annoying yet kindest (when he felt like it) person I knew…

Gerry & The Pacemakers - You'll Never Walk Alone