Free Saving Gary McKinnon by Janis Sharp

betraying them, as they sat together on the floor, smiling and looking up at us with trusting eyes.
    We wondered if we’d be allowed to adopt the children, but because of the uncertainty of Gary’s situation, I doubted it would be feasible.
    It was a hot summer’s day and we took the children to Paradise Wildlife Park, an adventure-park-cum-wildlife-centre. The children dashed straight into the large paddling pool. Willie was singing as they were splashing around and that made us laugh, but it was a bittersweet moment as I could no longer imagine life without them.
    We decided to go on the helter-skelter and the older children got themselves into sacks and whizzed down. Charlotte wanted to go on it too, so I took her up and we both went inside the sack and I had my arms tightly around her to keep her safe. As we started going down, my right arm was pressed hard against the side and suddenly I was in agony as it was tightly dragged all the way down until we reached the bottom. Every second of the friction burning and tearing caused excruciating pain. I desperately wanted to tuck my arm into the sack but I couldn’t move it for risk of letting Charlotte go for even a second – I instinctively protected her, no matter what.
    When we got off at the bottom, my skin was raw and bleeding and layers of skin had been totally removed. I was in agony.
    We went to first aid but because of health and safety they are no longer allowed to give any cream or medication to members of the public for burns or injuries, which seemed absurd – what’s the point of having a first aid centre when they can’t give first aid? We hurried straight home so I could put gel from our aloe vera plant onto the friction burn to relieve some of the pain, which it did almost immediately.
    The phone rang and it was Family Placement to say that they had found potential adopters for the children. When we told the children they would be leaving us they were distraught. They cried all night and told each other that they were staying and that the others were going because they were naughty.
    Mae was extremely rude to one of the adopters when she spoke to her on the phone. I had never heard Mae sound so rude and angry. We knew how much the children were hurting and tried to reassure them that they would be loved. All of the progress the children had made started to fade before our eyes as their survival mode kicked in.
    The chosen couple visited the children at our home and I liked them immediately. Difficult though it was for us, I felt that the children really would be loved and that comforted me. We were raw but the woman planning to adopt seemed caring and sensitive to our feelings and during an official meeting without the children, we cried together.
    The time was drawing closer for the children to move to their new home. Wilson and I took them on holiday and Gary and my sister came along too and we all had the best time ever. We swam, sang and cycled and Mae won a children’s dance competition.
    ‘Janis, let’s sing a song,’ said Jay.
    ‘I’d like that too,’ said Mae, holding the end of one of her pigtails to her mouth.
    ‘Which song shall we do?’
    ‘“You Are My Sunshine”,’ they said in unison.
    I knew this was going to kill me. It was the song I sang to baby Charlotte and to Mae, and to Jay, Michael and Willie. Halfway through I had to stop and leave them to carry on singing. I told the children I had something in my eye but Mae followed me through to the other room and through tears, said that she didn’t want to leave and wanted us all to run away together so that no one could find us. It was heartbreaking.
    We did our best to prepare the children for the move and told them how much we liked and trusted the people who were to become their parents. The day the children were leaving was one of the hardest days of our lives. The one consolation was that we liked the people who were adopting them, but saying goodbye and watching them