A Big Day

It had been an extraordinary beginning to the day for me; nothing less than transformational, physically and emotionally. I could have done with some time to process it alone. However, I had asked my youngest son the day before if we might go to the movies together and I didn't want to back out of that commitment.

The evening before, my eldest son had arrived with my husband's late Christmas present. How that evolved was that on Christmas Eve my eldest son came to me with the idea of ordering my husband a new set of golf clubs from America and I immediately agreed. If we had the money we would have gone out and bought a motorbike but short of that, a new set of clubs and bag would tickle his fancy, we felt sure.

And, they did. He was absolutely delighted with the clubs but I think he was especially touched that we did this for him. He considers himself the breadwinner (which he is) and that money ought to be spent on us and not him. So, that we should go to this effort for him meant a great deal to him. It was very clear to see that.

My eldest son has left today for another very remote location as his business life demands and my husband said, on receiving the golf clubs that when he got back they would play together. But, we both said to him, "Why not tomorrow?" And, that's when I said to my youngest son, "Why don't we see a film together, while they play golf?"

It was his choice of film. It was always going to be this way and when he said that 'War Horse' was his choice I did my best to prepare myself. I had seen the promos and knew that this was going to be hard emotional work.

And, it was. For well over 2 hours he and I worked hard to get Joey home safe, emotionally travelling with him over every obstacle in life he encountered; being taken on that journey and all the high and low moments of that amazing life of his. The film explored areas of trust, loyalty, courage, strength and good training and after my morning - those extraordinary highs and moments of happiness - this film was eating into every raw nerve; literally, in certain ways.

When the movie ended my son turned to me and said, "Can I have a hug?" And, that's when people started climbing over us to get out of their seats, not wanting to interfere with these two oddballs who were hugging one another tightly, wrapped in their own emotional space.

We were the last to leave the movie theatre and when we did neither one of us was ready to go home. We checked in at a restaurant walking distance away, ordered some food and began the process of discussing the movie; the elements of the film, the themes, the strategies Spielberg had used. It was with a great sense of pride that I realized that I had missed a symbolic element of the final scene and my son explained his theory to me. He will one day be a great creative force in this world. Watch this space!

As we discussed together, one big element of this very fine movie is the use of the words "big day". "Some days are big days, Joey, and this is your big day" said the boy to his horse.

And, what providence it should be that I should be sitting in a movie theatre watching a movie about Joey's big day on the very same day I had a big day of my own.