Please Lock Up My Grandson

Please Lock Up My Grandson

- Ann Cusack

I was just heading for the kettle when I heard a knock at the front door.

‘Can you get that?’ I called to my husband David.

I knew it was my grandson Tyler, 10. He dropped round most days after school.

He walked in and gave me a hug.

‘I’ve got those chocolate biscuits you like,’ I said.

‘Nice one, Nan!’ Tyler grinned.

He was my eldest grandson and we were close.

I’d helped my daughter Kelly raise him, babysat a lot.

After he’d started school, he’d still come round to visit. Me and his grandad had even taken him on holiday a few times. 

‘My little angel,’ I called him – because that’s what he was.

But when Tyler was 11, he got in with a bad crowd – started getting into trouble.

‘It’s important to work hard at school,’ I told him till I was blue in the face. 

‘I know,’ he’d sigh. 

But age 12, he was expelled for being disruptive.

I was heartbroken, but hoped the shock would change his ways.

Far from it, Tyler began drinking, smoking dope.

It was so upsetting for lock me and his mum. 

We couldn’t understand it. 

Tyler was well brought up, knew right from wrong.

Then, in May 2016, David, 74, died of the lung condition COPD. 

I was heartbroken – Tyler, too. 

Despite his problems, he and his grandad were close.

Around Christmas that year, he even moved in with me – and, for a few weeks, he was great company.