My Arch's Story

My Archie is my only child, and my best friend. He’s my whole world, my Arch. We used to work together and travelled the world together, we enjoy each other’s company.

 

He’s only got one tattoo and it’s ‘Mum’.

 

We had a cup of tea together at work that day. He was going out for his friend’s birthday. He’s never been in trouble, never been known to the police, never even had a parking ticket. He was in the right place on the path walking back to his car sober.

 

It wasn’t my Archie who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, it was the pathetic coward who murdered him. They came into Archie’s world not the other way around.

 

I woke up that night at 3.50am and texted him, “You still there son?” Archie's heart had stopped at 3:49am.

 

There was a buzz at the door, and I thought that’s probably Archie, but it was a police officer. She said, “It’s Archie, he’s been stabbed.” I went to the hospital and a nurse said, “Trust me, you don’t want to see him.” They’d opened his ribcage to get his heart started. But he looked lovely, not a mark on him. Just my beautiful little Arch.

 

I was allowed to see my Archie before he went to surgery and give him a kiss. He was breathing unaided at this point, he is such a strong boy. They were pumping blood into him because he’d lost four pints and it was coming straight out because his aorta was cut. When they brought him out, I was shouting, “I love you Arch!” But he’d had half an hour without blood going to his brain. The machine was doing his breathing for him after his second operation.

 

Murder detectives took over his case while he was still alive. You get a look from people. Doctors and nurses were giving me that look -they knew he wasn’t going to survive. I wouldn’t believe it until my dad blocked the door so I couldn’t get out and the doctor told me, “Archie won’t recover.” At 11.20am they officially said he had passed.

 

I had to call a complete stranger about getting Archie embalmed. You don’t expect to be making that call about your son. Six weeks before we were planning holidays together, now I'm discussing embalming my Arch. I wanted a full embalmment, so I’d be able to bring him home. But even saying those words makes you feel sick. You should never have to use those words with your son's name. Ever. They say everything you don’t want to hear, all those horrible words.

 

Things need to be done correctly but saying those words about Arch is like a punch in the face. So, we don’t say words like the ‘f-word’, we say ‘send off’. And while other people would say the ‘g-word’ we call it ‘Archie’s bed’. And people aren’t allowed to say ‘in memory’ - he’s not a memory, he’s my boy. Everything has stopped since Archie went up to heaven. I've never ever said the d-word either, because that would mean I’m acknowledging that he’s...I just can’t say that word.