The day before it happened, remembers Archie Bland, was ‘blissful, summer-ish and free and easy’. The Guardian journalist had spent it with his seven-week-old son Max and his wife Ruth in their new home, watching cricket, chatting to friends and calling relatives across the world who wanted to see the latest edition to the family.
And then everything changed.
As he tells Helen Pidd, the next morning they were woken to the news that Max had stopped breathing. Soon, their home was full of paramedics and police. Max would survive but his life would be for ever changed.
Here, Archie tells the story of his family’s life in the two years since – a tale of guilt and grief, parental love, moving acts of friendship as well as moments of unbelievable insensitivity.
It is also about trauma, and the scars it leaves. Although Archie still feels he failed Max in some way, he says he will use that shame to be the best dad he can be to his disabled son.
Photograph: Lydia Goldblatt/The Guardian
