Free Splintered Lives by Carol Holden

best to keep in step.
     
    Amy’s face lights up at the sight of son and she feels so content to have her family around her.   The Macmillan nurse has been and relieved her of any pain
     
    Her oxygen is flowing and her breathing is eased.
     
    ‘It is wonderful to see you David’ Amy whispers, tears filling her eyes as the emotion she feels at seeing David becomes too much for her.
     
David takes her hand and looks around to hug his dad.
‘Great to see you lad.’ Charlie gives his son a hug.
    Margaret gives her sister a light kiss on her forehead and leaves David alone with his parents.
     
    Amy dies peaceable in her sleep with her family holding each hand.   She is just fifty years old.
     
    Charlie is devastated. It is the worst day of his life when he has to follow the coffin to the Crematorium.   He gets through the ceremony with the help of David holding onto his elbow as they enter the chapel.
     
    David has to go back to Mexico to finish the project, and he is very sad and afraid for his father.    Amy and Charlie have been soul mates and David is concerned about how his dad will cope, now without her.   He decides that after completing the job in Mexico he will find something else to do in order to be near to his dad.
     
    He decides to take a teaching course and perhaps get a job near to his home.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 14
     
     
     
    David completes his teacher training and finds a placement in Ruthin at the six-form college. There is great shortage of science teachers and he is in great demand.   He could have found jobs at any of the major universities but he is committed to staying near to Charlie.
     
    He made friends at training college and he has kept in touch with two of them since leaving.   Sarah has been away in Nepal but John and Ann have kept in touch.
     
    Charlie is mending little by little but he has lost the sparkle he always had.   David is hoping that it will return in time.   He lives just a street away from his father and his Aunt Margaret so he now can keep an eye on him.   They have a night out once a week and he calls around frequently to see how he is doing.
     
    David is finding his job less than satisfying and when he sees an advert in the Guardian Newspaper’s educational section for a lecturer at the prestigious Manchester University ‘s Science Department he is very tempted to apply.
     
    He worries about Charlie but he thinks that they can perhaps move together if they can find a house where they have their own space but still have the company of each other.
     
    Its four years since his mother died and Charlie is about to retire from his job.
     
    He knows his father will hate to live in the city but there are semi-rural areas around Manchester and with luck they may find something within driving distance of the University.   When he approaches his father, Charlie is ready to move on.   His house has not felt like home since Amy died and although he has many happy memories of their life together, he now feels it is time to move on.
     
    David applies and is successful in securing the position of senior lecturer in the Science Department.   His salary will increase and with the help from his father he will be able to find a home suitable for both their needs.   David does not start his new position until September and this gives them time to find suitable accommodation.   They spend the summer looking for a home somewhere they will love to live.
     
    On one of their rovings they stumble on to the tiny village of Rivington on the outskirts of Manchester.   There is a country park where Charlie can wander and David also, on weekends.   The village is very close to a the small town of Horwich and quite near to Bolton, where there is a theatre and a good busy market, as well as, a number of first class shops and supermarkets. They find an estate agent and start their quest for a house to suit the both of them.
     
    They find a remote cottage