Recently I took a walk; a walk with Harry Chadwick and his family. I wasn’t sure how to write about this walk, but it was important to do so, and it comes with the express permission of Harry’s Family.
I take my responsibility very seriously, and it is a responsibility, to record a moment in time that, from that very instant, becomes part of a family’s treasured history. Some moments are not happy ones, but should still be treasured, and that was how I came to join Harry and his Family on this sunny day in Spratton, Northamptonshire.
I never met Harry in person, I wish I had. The impact that this young man had on the World around him in such a short space of time is nothing short of inspiring. Life for Harry had been challenging, but from the stories so lovingly retold, he and his family faced his cancer with equally heaped measures of humour and courage. And the stories we heard of the impact he had on the residents of Spratton, during his walks around the village with Freddie the dog, were simply heartwarming.
So that is how I came to join Harry, his family and Freddie on that one last walk to the church, and to witness a community come out in great numbers to pay tribute to a life short lived, by a very special young man.