Car crash

Everything else pales into insignificance when you get a phone call that your son has been involved in a car crash. Someone drove into the side of his wheelchair vehicle (admitted liability, but that doesn't make it much better). Fortunately no one hurt - driver, nurse and son all shaken up but damage limited to the van - other driver appears OK as well.

But the time spent getting there was bad. It could easily have been very different - felt physically sick and got very little sleep last night.

Meanwhile the paperwork explodes. Insurance, RAC, garage, incident forms, police numbers - all the normal stuff a standard motorist would have but complicated x10 times as my son is the keeper, but not the driver or insurer of the van - and he can't speak to the call centre as he's non verbal.

Looking forward to them taking the car away for repair (extensive) - not! Without his wheelchair transport we'll have to hire another at £75 a day, though we should get the money back eventually. This should give us a foretaste of what it will be like when Mr. Osborne takes his Mobility Allowance away. (The local Dial a Ride has just been closed for cost cutting reasons and he's barred from the accessible buses for 'health & safety' reasons.) Terrified they might write it off for cost reasons - it took 6 months to get this one delivered.

All this is distraction - brain won't stop going back to how much worse it could have been. He's disabled but no less valuable for that to us - I shouldn't have to say that, but I know it's what some people will be thinking. There was him, his nurse and a driver in the van - all were equally at risk, but I can't help thinking some people would have seen his death as less of a disaster than the other two if had been that bit worse. I wouldn't, he's my son.