The request was quite unexpected. I had known for him for 20 years, ever since he rolled into my youth club at the age of 12. I was simultaneously both shocked and flattered that he asked, but even more curious as to why. He explained that I was the only person who had "stayed with him" throughout his roller-coaster teenage and young adult years.
He now wanted me to be alongside him when he experienced the best moment of his life. After all, I had been with him when he had sunk towards rock bottom. Sure, I recalled particular interventions I had made - in relation to his school when he was threatened with exclusion, in his family life, accompanying him to court, and taking him to a drugs treatment agency for aural acupuncture to deal with his crack cocaine habit. I also remembered taking him to job interviews but, for him, the most important things was nothing concrete; it was simply my "being there" when I was needed.
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