Diary of a bereaved Mother: You got mail

Dear Ann,
Your book….it was a book I could not put down…….I kept reading even though I needed a break. Well done. It is so brave of you to put on paper such deep, raw feeling. I learnt a lot.
My mother-in-law lost a girl…R. R and I sat next to each other at a small primary school. Then it was a tiny and full of “farmers’ kids.” R was new and used to town kids. She had only been in the district about 18 months when a boy along the road shot her with a gun for teasing him about being a softy for needing a plaster on a little cut.
It has been nearly 60 years ago. The school’s counselling….well it was effective, I suppose….we were to get the strap if we even mentioned anything about the shooting. My husband who was R’s older brother has only spoken of it twice. It was never mentioned in his family…yet it was always there.
You made me sad, as I wished I had read your book long ago. I would have had a better idea of my mother-in-law’s pain. I must have reminded my mother-in-law of what R could have been all the years I knew her. (R was my mother-in-law’s only daughter.)
All the best for the future.
PB.