The front door swung open and my daughter Georgia dashed inside, the biggest smile on her face.
It was 2011, and Georgia, then 15, was an energetic teen. Our youngest, she was close to her older sister Scarlett, then 20, but they couldn’t have been more different – while Scarlett loved dancing, Georgia was a bit of a tomboy and always wanted to be outdoors.
Running, tennis, canoeing, climbing – she loved it all, but her main passion was the Air Cadets. She’d joined at 13 after her dad Steve had suggested it. Steve was a murder squad detective with West Mercia Police, and one of his colleagues was a supervisor for the Cadets.
From camping to shooting competitions, Georgia had so much fun, and now she’d come home from school, full of excitement.
‘We’re building a plane!’ she squealed. Boeing had donated a proper plane kit to Georgia’s school and although it would take years for the students to build, Georgia was thrilled.
For the next year, when she wasn’t studying for her GCSEs, she was at Cadets or at school working on the aircraft. ‘You’re always aiming for the skies,’ I’d joke, but it was true – my daughter had so much ambition, I just knew she was destined for amazing things.
When Georgia finished her GCSEs and left school in 2012, the plane still wasn’t finished. ‘I’ll keep helping though,’ she told me. That September she started her A levels at New College in Telford, where she made some wonderful friends and met her boyfriend Matt.
By half-term in May 2013, Georgia, then 17, was busier than ever. She’d planned driving lessons, was going to a gig, and had a trip away organised with Matt.
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