I fold my arms and keep watching. It’s just gone eleven a.m. and I hear my tummy growl with hunger, even though I’d managed to eat a small breakfast at the B&B. The flight will be leaving soon. I’ve no idea where in the airport a chartered flight might leave from but I imagine that where Tom and the guys are standing might be a clue.

‘Did you get to see your Dublin girl?’ I hear one of the fans shout in his direction. He doesn’t answer but just shyly dips his head and keeps writing as he leans a piece of paper on a fan’s back.

It’s been a strange yet very awakening number of days since Jack left for Canada and I felt I was leaving much more than Howth behind when I drove off this morning. As I reversed out of the car park by the marina, I saw Peggy and Bouncer walking along the pier, taking their usual seat at the bench without anyone to disturb them. Routine and habit, comfort and familiarity – all the things we often take for granted, but oh how we’d miss them if they were gone from our lives.

I spent the journey to the airport reminding myself of who I am as a person and taking the very best of what I could from seeing Tom again. In such a short time, I’ve come to realize so much.

I’m a great teacher, I know that from how the children and parents used to heap praise on me when I’d change just one child’s day with a comforting word or even a song.

I’m a risk-taker, a chancer, and sometimes those chances don’t always go my way. I know that by the decision I made to go to Howth yesterday and how I told Miss Jean Brady exactly what I thought when I knew I wasn’t being used for my full potential in her horrible school.

I’m a caring person, a person who knows what love is and who loves deeply. I know this because for the past three years, no matter what has been going on in my own life, my biggest desire, even bigger than finding closure with Tom, has been to see my brother walk again. To see him happy with Martin in Galway, to witness and feed off his grit and determination, and to hear his sweet voice sing even if he’s only scraping the surface of his talent fills me up in a way that nothing else can.