Project Diary: "I know he was on loan from God"

One time when I asked M to describe her son, murdered when he was 18: "He was handsome to the girls, but he was just my son. I’m not a foolish woman. I know he was on loan from God for a short period of time. It’s never going to be long enough. Although I’ve met women, and men, who came after me, whose children were much younger when they lost them. He was a good kid. I knew Khadafy as my son. Some knew him as a great football player. Some knew him as a student. My daughters knew him as a brother. I would describe him as a handsome young man, who was very polite to all adults and I have never found anyone who would dispute that. There may be some other things I didn’t know about, and as a mother and father we don’t know everything, so I don’t claim him to be an angel. What I do know is that he was a decent human being, a very decent and loving human being."