I have to say that I felt physically sick when I heard the news from Japan this week. That an unstable ex- employee had broken into care home for the disabled and had stabbed numerous residents . How dare he take the lives of those vulnerable people! Did he think that they were a burden to society? That he was doing their families a favour?That their lives were so worthless? I wept for the families of those victims who were supposedly in a care home, yet they were not kept safe from this bigot. I can imagine, with horror, how those families might be feeling now as the reality sinks in and how terrifying and confusing the victims’ last moments of life will have been.

I started to imagine, painfully, how we would feel if the same incident took place while Joshua was away from us, in respite. The consequences were horrifying and I doubt that I would ever forgive myself for putting Joshua in that position. Of all of the risks that I considered while reviewing potential respite provisions, this violent scenario never crossed my mind. I had not contemplated such evil.

It is a very sad reflection of how wicked and violent our society has become. We cannot turn on the news it seems without one human being carrying out violent atrocities on innocent people. I have to wonder where this will end and what we can do to reverse this horrifying  trend.