It's raining in my heart. Saturday 28th March 2009.

We said our final goodbyes and John boarded the train to Paris. We waved through the window until it left the station and Alex ran beside until he couldn't keep up and the train rattled into the distance. I cried. The cry turned into a sob and then it happened... the ugly cry. There I was in broad daylight with my bottom lip curled, my nostrils flared and my eyebrows in a deep furrow. Alex was wonderful, he comforted me and kept his arm around me as we walked.

The roads outside glistened with rain, umbrellas shrouded pedestrians as they hurried along. Alex and I decided to walk too. We walked towards the river and found a shop that sells colectors model cars. Alex bought a small Ferrari with his own money, I'll let him tell you the details as they are lost on me.

We sat in the little retro bar, Bistrot a Tartine, where we all had dinner last night, Alex played with his new model, I pondered. Every time I thought of John heading home to Australia my eyes welled with tears. When I cried in the bar, Alex rubbed my arm and said 'Oh Mum, how am I going to calm you down here?' That made me laugh at how funny he is and how funny we must have looked.

We arrived home just before dark, shared a movie and we just knew that we were there if the other one needed us.

Hopefully six weeks will fly and by the time we meet up with John again in Belfast, it will seem like only yesterday he left.