THE NURSE WHO LEFT MY GRANDAD FOR DEAD belict

Rachael Fealey, 31, had one question for the woman who killed her beloved Grampa - how could you?

- JANE COHEN, FIONA FORD

As my grandad Ron, then 66, slid the batteries into my new amagotchi toy, beamed as it came to life.

‘See how long you can keep him alive,’ he smiled. It was Christmas Day 2006 and my parents Karen, then 41, and Mike, 43, were busy in the kitchen while my grandad, my dad’s dad, who I called Grampa, sat with me, then 13, and my brother Adam, 17, in the living room.

Grampa came over every Christmas mid-morning and we showed him all of the presents we’d got. Then the tradition was to wander to the cemetery to lay a wreath for our Grandma Mary, known as Mayo. She had died of cancer two years earlier, in 2004, and Grampa always shed tears as he laid the wreath against her headstone.

‘You have to treasure the good times,’ he’d say on the walk home, before we tucked into our festive lunch.

Years passed, and it was always the same, but I liked it that way.

Grampa was retired from his job as a theatre nurse, and so devoted to Gran that he never tried to meet anyone else. But he kept busy by helping out at our local primary school, encouraging children to read and write. He even volunteered to take local foster children back and forth to school. He was also a director at the rugby club, a treasurer for the church, and a regular at the gym as he nudged towards his 80s!

‘I don’t like sitting about,’ he’d grin, and I admired his energy.

In 2018, aged 25, I took my boyfriend Sanj, then 25, to meet him. Sanj was a trainee surgeon, while I worked in the hospital pharmacy, and I knew Grampa would like him. I was right, and it was no surprise when they hit it off, bonding over surgery stories.

Sanj and I got our own place together, and then in October 2022 I had an announcement. ‘I’m expecting a baby,’ I told Grampa.

‘This is the best news,’ he said, eyes shining with tears, and I knew he’d be as wonderful with my child as he’d been with Adam and me.