As my son Jamie, then 16, stood on top of the Empire State Building I felt a surge of joy. He looked like a child on Christmas morning, his excited gaze fixed on the New York skyline.
It was February 2020 and together with my partner Jem, then 44, we had taken Jamie and his brother Callum, then 19, to New York. Like most people we had enjoyed all the usual tourist sights, like Central Park, the Statue of Liberty and Bloomingdale’s department store.
But this view had captured Jamie’s heart and as I took a step towards him he turned and smiled. ‘This is brilliant, Mum. Can we come back?’
