A Tribute to Sam

I’ve been pondering over the last week just where I was going to be and what I was going to be doing tomorrow.

At 6.45 am on the 8^th July 2010 the world as I had always known it, ended.

My son, Bombardier Sam Robinson was standing on the top of a berm overlooking compound Finch 35, approximately 400 metres from Forward Operating Base Wishtan in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was holding a Vallon Metal Detector, trying to locate a piece of surveillance equipment when the berm crumbled under foot and gave way, sending Sam sliding to the bottom and onto an Improvised Explosive Device. It took some minutes for his comrades to find his lifeless body: It took the Army a few hours to make that house call that the families of all serving service men and women dread: It took just a split second for my whole world to crumble. It is altogether impossible to explain or comprehend the complete and utter despair, desolation and torment that descends upon one after such an eventuality. It is beyond grief, it is beyond reason, it is beyond words. Friends tell me it will get easier but so far it just gets harder….

Rest in Peace Proud Welsh Warrior

You are in our thoughts every moment or every day.

Mount Olympus This Morning

In fact I am going to be tackling the toughest climb I have ever done which is I feel, an appropriate tribute. Mount Olympus at 2918 metres is higher than I have ever been. It is a mountain that has always been associated with the divine. It is known as the mountain of light with it’s glittering peaks visible from the coast just a few miles away. It is considered as a place of great power; the meeting point of heaven and earth, home of the God of the supernatural forces of heaven, Zeus. Whether I make it to the summit or not, is indeed in the hands of the Gods but one thing I do know is that Sam will be with me every step of the way!