Dear mum, I often ponder the story you told me long ago, of when you upped and left my biological father when I was just 6 weeks old, with little more belongings than just the clothes on your back. You've repeatedly told me that the reason you left is because you didn't want me to grow up in a violent household. You chose not to stick with a familiarity that you weren't happy with. You don't know what was beyond the cliff but you knew I couldn't be as bad as the life you knew then, so you jumped. You knew stepped into an abyss with a fully dependent baby girl with very little security and no idea what was coming around the corner. I think about that huge act of bravery a lot, these days. (www.telegraph.co.uk)