Thread by @gerryheed

THREAD: It's 18 years ago today that @BrennanGaye and I lost our son Joshua to a fatal foetal anomaly. Many of you know our story.
Every year since then we have been in a lot of emotional pain leading up to this date.
But not this year!
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This year we have been able to remember Joshua and our loss with sadness. Sadness for the loss of what could have been but for cruelty of nature.
This year we have not however felt again the sense of abandonment and judgement we felt in 2001
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This year we have not felt the anxious knot of needing to do something to prevent what happened to us happening to others, the need to proclaim "We did nothing wrong". We do not feel the need to be understood.
Why?
Because we are understood. Because we have been supported.
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During the campaign to #Repealthe8th one of the side-benefits we hoped for (although it was not our motivation) was that we would get "closure".
We felt it the day of the count but couldn't tell if it was just relief or joy.
We know today that closure is what we found.
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It was a real privilege to have met and work alongside so many repealers over the last few years - people from all walks of life, with a wide range of experiences and with their own unique contributions to make - we will never forget it!
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We sincerely hope that the hundreds of thousands of people who have been victimised by the 8th or who have been made to feel "less than" or "othered" have been able to find some semblance of the peace which we have now found.
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We would like to thank everybody who worked alongside us as we together #repealedthe8th, and we would really like to thank the 1,429,981 of you who voted Yes on May 25th.
Much love to you all!
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