**trigger warning** this is not a happy or positive post.

This week – a pretty ordinary one really- finished with something that I have found incredibly distressing. On Sunday, a young man (same age as one of my kids) fell into the river and did not resurface. He and his family were socialising early in the morning and he slipped from the pontoon and went under. He could not swim. – all of that information has come from various news stories and reports.

I woke up early and heard all the sirens. I saw the rescue boats drive past my street. The park and pontoon where this happened is right near my house. There was a full team set up in the car park and the helicopter flying back and forth, very very low, and for hours, searching. It has been reported and speculated on on the various news, community groups and social media sites. My boys have been checking with all of their friends, wondering if it is someone they know.

What I have struggled with most outside of imagining the families grief and heartbreak, is the amount of people who have gone out of their way to sit on the bollards at the top of the park and turn this tragedy into a spectator sport. It’s awful!! There have been so many cars driving past, slowing down hoping for a glimpse. It’s been really difficult to get my head around how voyeuristic this all feels.

I understand that people are curious about the process, and it is all activity that we don’t normally see here in this little pocket of suburbia, but I keep thinking of the young man’s family. It has been incredibly sad -and I can’t fathom how awful it must be for the family to wait, to hope for a positive outcome, but knowing the worst is the most likely; and then to have so many people sitting and watching just adds to the awfulness of the situation. It feels intrusive and insensitive and just so very very wrong!

As I am writing this, the young man has not yet been found. The helicopter and boats are back searching, and his family still don’t know where their boy is. My heart and love go out to them and I hope with everything I have, that they find him soon x