The Next Call by Sue Brown

Author:Sue Brown [Brown, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

AT THE memorial service, the vicar encouraged all of Ian’s friends to stand up and say something about him, as long as they kept it clean—Diana’s orders. There was a ripple of laughter, but no one stood, and Mark had a horrible feeling they were expecting him to start. To his relief Dylan stood up with an amusing anecdote from their teenage years. Mark had a feeling it had been heavily edited.

Again Mark learned far more about Ian in death than in life. They had talked, but they hadn’t shared their lives with each other, still in the honeymoon phase and content in the now.

Mark wasn’t surprised when Sandra stood and moved to the front.

She cleared her throat. “Some of you may know Ian was a volunteer at the Surrey LGBT helpline. He was young when he first started, and sometimes we… I… thought he was too young, but he had a knack of relating to people that was way beyond his years.

“Last week two young men in their late teens and a younger girl visited the helpline on separate occasions. We don’t get many people in person, but they wanted to come to let us know how grateful they were for Ian’s support. One of them had been on the point of suicide when he called. Ian gave him the strength to get away from the abuse he’d taken for years.”

Tears dripped down Mark’s face as he listened. He’d had those calls, and with most of them, he’d never known if what he said made a difference. He stood and hugged Sandra when she’d finished. She hugged him back and then returned to her seat.

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